AsiaSat update

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:04:56 +0000

The final elset from OIG for the AsiaSat 3 platform ...

AsiaSat 3 Platform                               177 x 128 km
1 25128U 97086C   97359.69801134  .17371302  12154-4  22806-3 0    97
2 25128  51.6085  88.5264 0037403 231.5488 128.8163 16.45033169   126

...shows it 9 seconds early on my SatEvo evolution "9005" posted at
about that time. My guess is that it re-entered near the next northbound
equator crossing at December 25.76 (~18:12 UTC).

             -------------------------------------

The latest elset for the Proton-K rocket ...

AsiaSat 3 Proton-K r                             184 x 142 km
1 25127U 97086B   97360.43044676  .05509257  12451-4  16249-3 0   138
2 25127  51.6151  84.4060 0032441 278.5783  81.1790 16.41092370   249

...is 14 seconds early with respect to the "9002" evolution I posted
here yesterday.

My current prediction is for decay at about December 27.08 (~02h UTC
+-2.5h). The evolution runs:

AsiaSat 3 Proton-K r                             178 x 140 km
1 25127U 97086B   97360.55215867  .06850744  33236-1  16617-3 0 90133
2 25127  51.6147  83.7159 0029262 279.0939  80.5751 16.42636317   269
AsiaSat 3 Proton-K r                             167 x 136 km
1 25127U 97086B   97360.73451846  .09450010  69361-1  15828-3 0 90138
2 25127  51.6139  82.6787 0023715 279.8689  79.8634 16.45550511   290
AsiaSat 3 Proton-K r                             150 x 129 km
1 25127U 97086B   97360.91648725  .16611336  25075+0  15621-3 0 90133
2 25127  51.6127  81.6384 0016405 280.6462  79.1690 16.50013718   324
AsiaSat 3 Proton-K r                             142 x 125 km
1 25127U 97086B   97360.97701437  .23451576  54698+0  16233-3 0 90138
2 25127  51.6120  81.2907 0013098 280.9060  78.9465 16.52383437   334
AsiaSat 3 Proton-K r                             129 x 118 km
1 25127U 97086B   97361.03743558  .44698762  22954+1  19073-3 0 90135
2 25127  51.6111  80.9420 0008609 281.1665  78.7366 16.56186078   341

             -------------------------------------

The latest elsets for AsiaSat 3 and (what I assume to be) its failed
Block-DM3 stage are:
AsiaSat 3                                        35997 x 269 km
1 25126U 97086A   97360.35094992  .00023211  00000-0  96956-2 0    78
2 25126  51.5125  91.9746 7288063   1.0795 359.8143  2.26259055    31
AsiaSat 3 Block-DM3 r?                           35996 x 223 km
1 25129U 97086D   97359.90803672 -.00000507  00000-0  00000-0 0    14
2 25129  51.4499  92.0594 7304004   1.0181 359.8589  2.26580509    16

Contrary to some reports, they are in no danger of imminent re-entry and
should survive the ups and downs of lunisolar perturbations into the
next millennium.

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/