El Paso reentry

ROB MATSON (ROBERT.D.MATSON@cpmx.saic.com)
25 Mar 1998 15:51:40 -0800

Regarding the possible El Paso, TX, reentry, Alan Thomson wrote:

> I just talked with the TV cameraman who shot the video, and he
> said it was taken at an evening football game, probably between
> 8:00 and 9:00 PM local (MDT, UT-6) at the Socorro Athletic Complex
> in El Paso. That's not far from where I live, so I'll go out there
> tomorrow and try to get a better idea of the azimuth and elevation
> of the putative reentry shown in the video clip.
 
I took a look at both Mir Deb KG (#23888) and NOAA 10 Deb B (#16982)
to see if they made passes near El Paso on October 3, 1996, at nighttime.
Yes to both.  NOAA 10 Deb made a pass at around 1:50am, but its
altitude looks too high to be even close to reentry.

Mir Deb KG looks pretty good though.  Using the (outdated) elements, it
made close to a 30-degree pass on an ascending node, culminating in
the southeast at about 20:54 MDT (UTC-6h).  If it was reentering, it =
would
have been several minutes earlier than this.  The ground track took it =
right
over Odessa and Midland, TX.  --Rob