Re: Decay Watch: GPS #43 Rkt (#24877)

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 3 Jan 1998 13:00:16 +0000

The final (so far) elsets from OIG are:
GPS SVN43 r      5.9  2.4  0.0  5.6 d            163 x 122 km
1 24877U 97035B   98002.78708285  .28849449  50219-5  24353-3 0  3125
2 24877  37.6775 275.3191 0031686 338.5669  21.3283 16.48793477 24491
GPS SVN43 r      5.9  2.4  0.0  5.6 d            179 x 117 km
1 24877U 97035B   98002.84758288  .13192631  51339-5  10404-3 0  3135
2 24877  37.6569 274.7888 0047895  29.1653 331.0961 16.46820263 24501

The last one, showing a decrease in drag and mean motion and an increase
in the apogee height, is clearly wrong though it suggests to me that it
was still in orbit when it overflew Mexico and the SE USA, passing to
the S of New Orleans (20:33 UTC) to Charleston, So Carolina (20:35).

My best fit to elsets over the final 12 hours ends...
GPS SVN43 r      5.9  2.4  0.0  5.6 d            161 x 131 km
1 24877U 97035B   98002.78707825  .38457872  11866+1  47852-3 0 93094
2 24877  37.6407 275.2733 0022928  20.0022 340.0876 16.47453412 24499
GPS SVN43 r      5.9  2.4  0.0  5.6 d            134 x 119 km
1 24877U 97035B   98002.84755766 1.15675296  12801+2  55941-3 0 93095
2 24877  37.6395 274.8304 0011285  20.5993 339.4462 16.54881834 24506

I believe that decay would have occurred as it approached the southbound
equator crossing on this final orbit, possibly over Sudan in NE Africa
(10 deg N, 25 deg E) at 21:00 UTC.

Alan
-- 
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