96 54B, Centaur rocket

Mike McCants (mikem@fc.net)
Fri, 14 Mar 1997 19:23:18 -0600 (CST)

I happened to notice the large drag term on the following elset:

1 24316U 96054B   97 72.44686091 1.13483237  00000-0  60897+0 0   546
2 24316  25.5781  88.7203 4047397 302.5069  24.6342  7.51503112  8939

The most recent elsets are:

1 24316U 96054B   97073.60914466  .03182530 -15648-4  24370-3 0   634
2 24316  25.2361  90.8778 3453932 263.7807 251.5799  8.80846264  8886
1 24316U 96054B   97073.73796411  .15317167 -16324-4  72328-3 0   644
2 24316  25.2422  90.5535 3384571 264.3642 305.3205  8.97084955  8898
1 24316U 96054B   97073.85625115  .67223274 -17512-4  26665-2 0   687
2 24316  25.2356  90.2458 3287745 265.2241 332.1419  9.17443520  8902

The SSR entry is:

                                           Per    Incl Apo     Prg  RCS
24316 96-054B  ATLAS 2 CENTAUR R/B   US    984.5  25.2 52656   151  24.2

Some older elsets are:

1 24316U 96054B   97039.93223370 -.00000021 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 00378
2 24316 025.2135 108.4988 8045320 233.8170 022.8759 01.40564571008071
1 24316U 96054B   97044.20022513 +.00470065 -52915-6 +11741-1 0 00389
2 24316 025.1911 107.4359 8008263 235.2380 083.2853 01.46268991008133
1 24316U 96054B   97056.09884628  .00836628  11997-5  20000-2 0   396
2 24316  25.2656 104.4718 7562578 240.3027  24.7874  1.99242576  8305
1 24316U 96054B   97060.19686854  .00678116  12707-5  76850-3 0   428
2 24316  25.2476 102.9563 7243433 242.9798  28.6427  2.40095178  8381
1 24316U 96054B   97067.25044041  .02272101  31217-4  10000-2 0   446
2 24316  25.2303  99.3855 6338800 249.0230  36.7761  3.67941187  8554
1 24316U 96054B   97070.52419140  .00740009  41849-6  10000-3 0   479
2 24316  25.2305  96.3323 5182381 254.4794 339.2315  5.56816229  8675
1 24316U 96054B   97071.52351275 -.99999999  00000-0 -10929+2 0   485
2 24316  25.1893  94.9624 5009210 252.6008 339.0273  5.71370679  8730
1 24316U 96054B   97072.21346120  .99999999 -15106-4  50000-2 0   532
2 24316  25.1852  93.7910 4202708 258.9307 242.6442  7.37189025  8775
1 24316U 96054B   97 72.44686091 1.13483237  00000-0  60897+0 0   546
2 24316  25.5781  88.7203 4047397 302.5069  24.6342  7.51503112  8939
1 24316U 96054B   97073.19132059  .64798660 -15393-4  70959-2 0   586
2 24316  25.2530  91.7560 3710886 262.6618  43.0110  8.28455938  8848

So, it would seem that it was lost for many months and now it has
been recovered and it should decay before too many more days.

With an inclintion of 25, it's not going to go over Austin or Houston,
but it should still be interesting.

Mike McCants