Decay watch: October 6
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 19:40:42 +0100
SpaceCom has issued the first and last decay warnings for #17038,
Molniya 3-30, in the space of only 95 minutes. It appears to have been
lost since September 27 when it had a mean motion of 2.46 revs/day and,
if the elset was to be believed, a perigee distance of only 65 km.
Only three elsets have been issued since then - all of them for the same
equator crossing. The final one is...
Molniya 3-30 1386 x 97 km
1 17038U 86079A 99278.65453417 .54861710 49163-5 10000-2 0 2793
2 17038 62.0984 148.0783 0904958 258.8617 90.9555 14.45160056 95226
...with the other two showing perigee distances of 78 and 84 km.
SpaceCom suggests that decay was at October 5 23:26 UTC +-5h over the S
Indian Ocean.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Tel: +44 (0)131 477 9144 Fax: +44 (0)870 0520750
Scotland | SatEvo page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/