Final orbits of SL-6 rocket (97- 22 B)

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 7 Aug 1997 18:52:37 +0100

The latest elset from OIG for the decaying Cosmos 2342 SL-6 rocket is:
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            167 x 151 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.57714121  .09111622  88673-5  36996-3 0  1875
2 24801  62.7645 219.6410 0012044 129.6572 230.9320 16.42606317 13596

This shows it running only 5.8 seconds late against yesterday's final
("9177") SatEvo evolution. Another analysis points to decay at about
August 7.85 (ie at about 20:25 UTC) with an uncertainty of one hour or
so.

Here are my predicted elements for the final three revs:
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            153 x 143 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.69864016  .18012954  31960+0  35023-3 0 91831
2 24801  62.7567 219.1266 0007942 122.1050 237.9721 16.46725166 13616
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            145 x 137 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.75931606  .26996354  80257+0  33731-3 0 91839
2 24801  62.7559 218.8709 0006150 122.1184 237.9413 16.49372102 13623
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            131 x 126 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.81986284  .65335657  59457+1  39447-3 0 91833
2 24801  62.7546 218.6144 0003547 122.1318 237.9026 16.54194254 13633

Alan
-- 
 Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707:   55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W    156m asl
 Edinburgh   | Home:      alan@wingar.demon.co.uk       +44 (0)131 477 9144
 Scotland    | SatEvo satellite page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/