RADUGA Launch Re-Entry

Bill Bard (wtba@eci-esyst.com)
21 Jun 1996 07:28:21 -0400

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.

-- 
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=3D=3D=3D=3D
   James R Miller                    E-mail:    g3ruh@amsat.org
  Cambridge England                  Stardate:  1996 Jun 20 [Thu] 1525 =
utc
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