Decay watch: 2001 Mar 23

From: Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Date: Fri Mar 23 2001 - 13:47:17 PST

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    From today's update to my Decay Watch page...
    _____________________________________________________________________
    Object: #16609 = 86- 17 A = Mir
    
    Final decay analyses:
    Source   Prediction made    Predicted decay at      Latitude Longitude
                   UTC                UTC                  deg      deg
    SpaceCom   Mar 23 10:02     Mar 23 06:04 +-40m       51.0 S   124.5 W
    SatEvo     (not predicted)
    
    Final elsets:
    Mir Complex     32.7  4.2  0.0  1.6 v  384       194 x 159 km
    1 16609U 86017A   01082.17420660  .44402778  11910-4  43348-2 0  7816
    2 16609  51.6196 249.7886 0026531 205.9392 324.3294 16.36088465863295
    Mir Complex     32.7  4.2  0.0  1.6 v  384       215 x 151 km
    1 16609U 86017A   01082.20636684  .00382588  12180-4  29147-4 0  7827
    2 16609  51.6362 249.6171 0048914 224.8684 134.9353 16.33569098863305
    
    Note: I am a little surprised that SpaceCom has ventured this decay 
    analysis for Mir. Not only is the epoch of the final published 
    elset prior to the final de-orbit "burn", but there is ample
    evidence in the public domain that Mir's decay point was a few
    minutes (5?) before 06:04 UTC with an uncertainty window totalling 
    very much less than 80 minutes. Indeed, the latter suggests that 
    SpaceCom is the only organisation uncertain of where around its 
    orbit Mir came down.
    _____________________________________________________________________
    Object: #22233 = 92- 79 C = GPS 2-16 r2 (PAD-D)
    
    Decay predictions:
    Source   Prediction made    Predicted decay at      Latitude Longitude
                   UTC                UTC                  deg      deg
    SpaceCom   Mar 23 18:04     Mar 24 13:05 +-12h       34.4 N    39.6 E
    SatEvo     Mar 23 20:50     Mar 24 17:43 +-8h        15.3 N    39.8 E
    
    Latest elset:
    GPS 2-16 r2      3.0  1.5  0.0  6.5 d  3.1       447 x 141 km
    1 22233U 92079C   01082.72263879  .15568832  60763-6  13411-2 0  8249
    2 22233  34.5264 338.5200 0229657 116.0480 247.6657 15.92924400209048
    
    SatEvo prediction: See Decay watch page.
    ..(ends)
    GPS 2-16 r2      3.0  1.5  0.0  6.5 d  3.1       218 x 124 km
    1 22233U 92079C   01083.65204605  .66338252  16182+1  98662-3 0 98242
    2 22233  34.5170 331.8315 0071537 125.7656 234.9017 16.38079154209194
    GPS 2-16 r2      3.0  1.5  0.0  6.5 d  3.1       164 x 113 km
    1 22233U 92079C   01083.71273776 1.83019609  42577+2  10615-2 0 98245
    2 22233  34.5139 331.3737 0039322 126.4308 233.9324 16.50420760209209
    
    Note: The latest elset shows this running 71 sec early against 
    yesterday's prediction and implies (improbably) that the perigee 
    height has increased by some 9 km in the preceding 32 hours. My
    new estimate is for decay southbound over the Red Sea.
    _____________________________________________________________________
    Object: #23951 = 96- 40 D = Arabsat 2A Spelda
    
    Decay predictions:
    Source   Prediction made    Predicted decay at      Latitude Longitude
                   UTC                UTC                  deg      deg
    SpaceCom   Mar 23 10:48     Mar 25 09:59 +-1d         5.1 S    68.9 W
    SatEvo     (not predicted)
    
    Latest elset:
    Arabsat 2A Spelda                                772 x 145 km
    1 23951U 96040D   01082.60297679  .24073067 -29129-4  47338-2 0  5963
    2 23951   6.8638  49.7717 0458356 202.8243 143.1017 15.35731718 72771
    
    Note: This appears to have been lost for 10 days until it was 
    recovered yesterday - I cannot get a satisfactory SatEvo evolution
    through the few recent elsets available.
    _____________________________________________________________________
    Object: #26059 = 00-  3 B = Zhongxing-22 CZ-3A rocket
    
    Decay predictions:
    Source   Prediction made    Predicted decay at      Latitude Longitude
                   UTC                UTC                  deg      deg
    SpaceCom   Mar 23 09:18     Mar 23 09:06 +-29m       18.0 S    90.1 E
    SatEvo     Mar 23 21:00     Mar 23 08:58 -10m+20m    22.3 S    73.1 E
    
    Final elset:
    Zhongxing-22 CZ-3A r                             282 x 94 km
    1 26059U 00003B   01082.34602905  .99999999 -13232-4  99244-3 0  5653
    2 26059  24.5675  91.9516 0142876 288.0367 203.7959 16.31716392 12722
    
    Note: The latest elset has this 72 sec early against yesterday's 
    prediction. I show it decaying northbound over the Indian Ocean
    soon after perigee on the above orbit.
    _____________________________________________________________________
    
    
    Alan
    -- 
    Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707:  55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W      156m asl
    Edinburgh  / SatEvo & elsets:    http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/
    Scotland  / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/
             *
    
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    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Mar 23 2001 - 13:49:26 PST