Joel Runes, C* 426 r, Mir, tether, etc.
Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Tue, 27 Feb 1996 15:01:12 -0500
Ron Coursen of Ashtabula, Ohio, USA (about -80.8, +41.8) reports observing
C* 426 r = 05282 = 71- 52 B flashing between 2nd mag and invisibility with
a 6 second period at 960225 1105 UT, preceded 1 minute earlier by a steady
2nd mag object. The earlier object may have been Meteor 1-7 = 04849 =
71- 3 A or possibly IRAS = 13777 = 83- 4 A. My 1000 elset file of
bright objects didn't pop up anything else plausible, though I have to say
that 1000 objects isn't what it used to be.
Can anyone confirm that 05282 is flashing, or suggest a more plausible
scenario?
Mir has been slightly reboosted, so now would be a good time to update
your elset. See latest elset below. The drag factors may be a bit "hot",
implying it might run late wrt to this elset.
I do not know of a satisfactory way to deal with deaths in this medium. I
can only say that when John Gardner called to tell me the sketchiest of
details of the passing of Joel Runes at a young age, I was deeply shocked.
His contributions and correspondence will be sorely missed. Many
benefitted from his work. Probably his family and friends, taken in the
"old" way, never heard my name, as I never met Joel in person, or even by
phone. Nor do I know of a good way to contact them. Yet his
contributions were many and of high interest, and I felt I knew him quite
well. Just yesterday was the funeral service for another whom I knew
"1-dimensionally". Her name was Norton and because of alphabetical
hegemony, we spent most (all?) of junior high and high school sitting one
in front of the other in homeroom and our pictures are adjacent in the
high school yearbook. Our interests and social circles did not bring us
much closer most of the time. But how many of us today know more than a
handful of people multi-dimensionally? Few of us live in villages where
we can share family, companions, labor, culture and spiritual lives. Here
in SeeSat-L, we have made our own village for the last 15 months. I am
grateful that many have made substantial contributions.
Here are the latest from OIG for the manned missions and the tether:
Mir
1 16609U 86017A 96058.43158068 .00004712 00000-0 69168-4 0 4305
2 16609 51.6464 318.9404 0005799 40.0348 320.1084 15.57624768572742
STS75
1 23801U 96012A 96058.58376157 .00002215 -70049-5 00000+0 0 224
2 23801 28.4685 251.5573 0005468 339.1327 297.8140 15.92530102 759
TSS
1 23805U 96012B 96058.55875632 .00467535 00000-0 32997-2 0 178
2 23805 28.4726 252.1573 0067235 189.8721 170.0538 15.68620885 747
STS75 drag factors are erroneous. Use much larger ones. Perhaps
.00140000, and 50000-3 for bstar. NBC Evening News 960226 reports TSS
will decay in about a month. Wire reports quoted in the PD suggest 20 to
30 days.
Cheers.
Walter Nissen dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu