EORSAT visible until decay

Bjorn Gimle (Bjorn_Gimle@lector.kth.se)
Tue, 11 Jul 95 13:31:28 +0100

The decaying #22808 1993-60 A is showing an unusual behaviour, 
even for an EORSAT.

Since it was commanded down from the MM=15.52 operational orbit, its
orbit correction system has been running continously (?), increasing 
its ndot2 from .0010 to only .0021, while MM has increased to 16.069.

The natural values of ndot2 for this interval, as shown by the other
EORSATs decaying Dec.-94 - June-95, are about .0025 - .0080.

Apparantly, the effect of orbit correction has increased for #22808,
while MM has increased, and since this phase has lasted more than 
3 months, as opposed to 45-61 days for other EORSATs (0 for #22643), 
I can not predict the decay at all. If, however, the orbit correction 
ceased after the following elset's epoch, it would decay on or after July 16.

Fortunately, #22808 as well as the now operational EORSATs, 
#23336 and #23596 are currently visible from US, Canadian, 
Japanese and European latitudes. The chances that some of us can 
see the last orbit, or even the decay, of #22808, are quite high. 
( I hope I didn't omit any area of current seesat-l users )

Cosmos 1220      6.0  0.0  0.0  4.5
1 12054U 80089  A 95183.70403698  .00000375  00000-0  45405-4 0  1203
2 12054  64.9947  29.8363 0145322   9.9826 350.4130 14.76111804703891
Cosmos 2264      6.0  0.0  0.0  4.5
1 22808U 93060A   95190.12672648 +.00205377 +70341-5 +19406-3 0 02820
2 22808 064.9796 308.3609 0066600 243.8385 115.6012 16.06895879105161
Cosmos 2293      6.0  0.0  0.0  4.5
1 23336U 94072  A 95187.24610971 +.00000318 +00000-0 +10000-4 0  5307
2 23336 065.0280 339.9139 0011276 286.6638 073.3277 15.52103834038218
Cosmos 2313      6.0  0.0  0.0  4.5
1 23596U 95028A   95190.24648245 +.00000318 +00000-0 +10000-4 0 00840
2 23596 065.0394 256.9306 0010182 274.8946 085.1106 15.52061110004824

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Bjorn_gimle@lector.kth.se == bjorn.gimle@duesenberg.se ==
== bjorn.gimle@online.dextel.se ;  59.22371 N, 18.22857 E
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