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
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