RE: Decay of Mars Pathfinder rocket
J. Donald Gardner (fn470@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Thu, 27 Nov 1997 15:08:05 -0500 (EST)
Reply to message from 3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL of Thu, 27 Nov
>If you live under the reentry path, watch out... Back in January '97
>a very large piece of a Delta II 2nd stage survived reentry and landed
>near Austin Texas, just missing someone's house. There's a webpage
According to the latest elsets from OIG:
The latest set =
1 24668U 96068B 97331.59238066 .06261115 24441-5 35273-3 0 7518
2 24668 36.3114 76.2220 0131370 228.2395 130.7124 16.17572770 47979
The rocket continues to decay but the apogee appears to be in the northern
hemisphere. Would a rocket in an eccentric orbit tend to re-enter at its
perigee?
Cheers.
--
Don Gardner
Homepage - http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9787/
76.8419 W, 39.1796 N, 37m ASL