Re: Re Entry ..Brazil..July 1st ?

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 21 Aug 1997 20:49:37 +0100

In message <08324839003109@cybase.co.uk>, John Locker
<satcom@cyserv1.cybase.co.uk> writes
>Can anyone identify for me the object which re-entered  on July 1st around
>2200 gmt.
>
>Location of impact was Brazil...approx co-ordinates 57 west,13 south..the
>Matto Grosso region.
>Reports indicate that debris,about 3-4 feet in diameter , described as an
>"iron ball" crashed down leaving a sizeable crater.
> ...
>Sounds like a bit of launcher debris to me.....any ideas?

The closest re-entries to this date, taken from my SatEvo decay list #34,
are:
   #    Designation    Name          SatEvo decay day+dec    NASA decay

 17481   87- 12 B   M-3S2 r                June 28.78        June 28
 24205   94- 29 KG  STEP-2 Pegasus deb     July  2           June  2
(80261   95- 28)    Cosmos 2313 deb        July  3.0       (not listed)
 11075   78- 80 D   Molniya 1-42 SL-6 r2   July  3.54        July  3

#24757 (Progress M-34) is reported to have been deorbited on July 2. The
final elsets for this are/were (note that day 97183 is July 2):
Progress M-34                                    393 x 375 km
1 24757U 97014A   97182.85055067  .00022057  00000-0  25900-3 0  1323
2 24757  51.6511  12.1633 0013888 196.9229 184.0919 15.61285879 13466
Progress M-34                                    393 x 375 km
1 24757U 97014A   97183.16686013  .00072254  00000-0  82977-3 0  1331
2 24757  51.6526  10.5730 0013088 196.0624 163.9704 15.61284840 13515
Progress M-34                                    393 x 375 km
1 24757U 97014A   97183.16686461 -.00027477  00000-0  00000-0 0  1341
2 24757  51.6559  10.5707 0013869 197.7968 162.2708 15.61257323 13513

I note that this orbit would have taken Progress near to the reported
"impact" site at 22:42 UTC on July 1. The track being:
                       UTC   Latitude Longitude
                      22:41   10.2S     60.4W
                      22:42   13.3S     58.1W
                      22:43   16.3S     55.8W
Is it possible that the re-entry was of an uncatalogued object in the
Mir/Progress orbital plane? On the other hand, it sounds like a substantial
chunk of debris to have missed while in orbit.

Many other fragments from the Cosmos 2313 breakup were also decaying during
this period, but none of them (I believe) could have had orbits over Brazil
near the crucial time.

Alan
-- 
 Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707:   55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W    156m asl
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