Re: #24806 (Cosmos 2343 r) decay

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 21 May 1997 21:15:06 +0100

I spoke too soon...
>The final (so far) OIG elset for this is:
>Cosmos 2343 r                                    161 x 142 km
>1 24806U 97024B   97140.42880913  .11929049  78441-5  25197-3 0   361
>2 24806  64.8478  73.0661 0014865  64.5129 295.7807 16.45491572   803

..in fact, one late elset appeared...
Cosmos 2343 r                                    140 x 119 km
1 24806U 97024B   97140.61065422  .20778430  80540-5  12013-3 0   375
2 24806  64.8497  72.3527 0016083  57.4230 302.7904 16.53768130   831
which shows that it did not decay at May 20.586 as I estimated. I'm
skeptical of the mean motion and apogee which appear too low and too
high respectively.

That final (I'm pretty sure) orbit took it towards/over Europe and
onwards to pass S of Japan. I now suspect that it decayed somewhere
along that arc - let's say May 20.62, the time predicted by Bjoern
earlier that day.

Alan
-- 
 Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707:  55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W  156m asl
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