This is a re-post from the amsat list. Bill Bard wtba@eci-esyst.com RADUGA Launch Re-Entry ---------------------- by James Miller G3RUH 1996 Jun 20 A couple of months ago, Richard Limebear drew our attention to the = keplerian elements of part "D" of a RADUGA launch which had gone sour, and remarked = on their similarity to Oscar-13's elements: Satellite OSCAR-13 96010D Epoch Date 1996 Jun 15 1996 Jun 16 Inclination 57 48 deg R.A.A.N. 111 250 deg Eccentricity 0.7426 0.7334 - Arg perigee 42 29 deg Mean motion 2.098212 2.262156 rev/d Decay 7.1E-6 8.0E-4 rev/d/d Revolution 6129 264 - Semi major axis 25773 24500 km I have been collecting the elements since then, and have plugged them in = to my program that numerically integrates the equations of motion for AO-13. After adjusting the mass/area ratio (which is about 2x larger than = AO-13's) so that predicted and Norad keplerian elements agree over 2 months, I = find that re-entry for 96010D is predicted for 1996 Jul 17 [Wed], which is = four weeks hence. This event is a sort of rehearsal for AO-13's demise, and should be interesting, if only to practice your chicken-little technique. -- =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D James R Miller E-mail: g3ruh@amsat.org Cambridge England Stardate: 1996 Jun 20 [Thu] 1525 = utc =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D