Decay watch: Iridium 69 rocket
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 5 Jun 1998 03:49:23 +0100
The Long March 2C rocket responsible for Iridiums 69 & 71 will decay at
about June 7.2 (+-0.4 d) according to my current calaculations, though
the current 60d decay forecast "effective" on June 3 has/had it decaying
on June 4!
The rocket leaves eclipse near 51 deg N latitude 1-2 hours after local
midnight so is best placed for Europe and Canada. Eclipse entry occurs
over Antarctica. Note that perigee occurs in darkness while northbound
over the N hemisphere.
The most recent elset:
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 286 x 153 km
1 25321U 98026C 98155.99422698 .02758028 -13228-5 36552-3 0 1153
2 25321 86.3297 277.0210 0100441 34.7080 326.1774 16.20007709 5299
My SatEvo prediction, based on a fit through this and other recent
elsets:
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 281 x 152 km
1 25321U 98026C 98156.11768302 .03381908 32148-2 40996-3 0 91157
2 25321 86.3294 276.9510 0097579 34.1726 326.4517 16.21039297 5314
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 275 x 152 km
1 25321U 98026C 98156.30280749 .03568969 35251-2 40385-3 0 91156
2 25321 86.3290 276.8459 0093124 33.3686 327.2150 16.22325527 5349
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 266 x 151 km
1 25321U 98026C 98156.54940437 .03848313 40362-2 39359-3 0 91151
2 25321 86.3283 276.7055 0086834 32.2952 328.2336 16.24153071 5382
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 256 x 150 km
1 25321U 98026C 98156.79571332 .04169116 59042-2 38127-3 0 91157
2 25321 86.3276 276.5650 0080060 31.2202 329.2529 16.26125834 5423
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 245 x 149 km
1 25321U 98026C 98157.04170936 .04740245 91517-2 38011-3 0 91154
2 25321 86.3268 276.4241 0072667 30.1434 330.2729 16.28309217 5467
Iridm 69 CZ r 10.0 3.0 0.0 4.5 d 233 x 148 km
1 25321U 98026C 98157.28735202 .05573080 13986-1 37741-3 0 91157
2 25321 86.3259 276.2830 0064443 29.0645 331.2927 16.30828414 5507
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Home: alan@wingar.demon.co.uk +44 (0)131 477 9144
Scotland | SatEvo satellite page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/