Re: Decay update: Iridium 15 Delta 2 r
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 28 Mar 1998 23:13:28 +0000
There is little more than a day left for this decaying Delta 2 rocket.
The latest elset at the time of posting is:
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 223 x 182 km
1 24874U 97034F 98087.63829283 .02696554 -12901-5 75032-3 0 3328
2 24874 82.6966 276.7622 0031027 90.3077 270.1674 16.26435285 40884
Compared with the "9324" SatEvo evolution I posted yesterday, this shows
it running 8.7 seconds late. In fact, the drag rate has been steady
since this morning while the perigee has fallen by 4 km, suggesting that
the atmospheric isobars have been falling with the Delta.
My current prediction is for decay at March 30.3 (+-0.3d), though for
this to happen the drag must increase again very soon.
Predicted elset to decay:
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 213 x 177 km
1 24874U 97034F 98088.00714436 .03760807 80491-2 85200-3 0 93329
2 24874 82.6957 276.3428 0027339 88.7916 271.5216 16.28980360 40943
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 206 x 174 km
1 24874U 97034F 98088.25271667 .04487928 12057-1 85564-3 0 93326
2 24874 82.6950 276.0626 0024579 87.7789 272.5025 16.30994206 40983
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 195 x 168 km
1 24874U 97034F 98088.55920312 .06023248 23456-1 85826-3 0 93326
2 24874 82.6939 275.7117 0020622 86.5104 273.7254 16.34164481 41036
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 183 x 161 km
1 24874U 97034F 98088.80389643 .08518500 49782-1 85489-3 0 93327
2 24874 82.6927 275.4301 0016807 85.4929 274.6990 16.37645235 41073
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 165 x 150 km
1 24874U 97034F 98089.04794528 .14946296 15351+0 55521-3 0 93327
2 24874 82.6909 275.1475 0011835 84.4720 275.6630 16.43086561 41111
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 151 x 140 km
1 24874U 97034F 98089.16958970 .25679104 58529+0 42719-3 0 93325
2 24874 82.6891 275.0055 0008311 83.9594 276.1353 16.47760933 41138
Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 138 x 131 km
1 24874U 97034F 98089.23024934 .44604739 21712+1 40238-3 0 93329
2 24874 82.6877 274.9343 0005800 83.7022 276.3639 16.51783332 41147
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/