Decay update: Titan rocket

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Mon, 31 May 1999 23:26:43 +0100

Many thanks (and well done) to Tristan Cools, Rainer Kracht, Alexander
Seidel and Wim Holwerda for observational reports of the Titan around
May 31 20:42. An adjustment to the predicted orbital evolution brings it
more into line with the observations and pushes the decay back closer to
SpaceCom's prediction on the 1st.
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Object: #25745 = 99- 28 B = USA 144 Titan 4 r

Decay predictions:
Source   Prediction made    Predicted decay at      Latitude Longitude
               UTC                UTC                  deg      deg

SpaceCom   May 24 21:58     Jun  2 11:36 +-5d        63.4 S    94.0 W
SpaceCom   May 26 06:28     Jun  1 14:00 +-4d        47.1 N     3.3 W
SpaceCom   May 28 11:26     Jun  1 11:29 +-2d        19.2 N   172.6 E
SpaceCom   May 29 13:30     Jun  1 13:04 +-2d         6.9 S   161.8 E
SpaceCom   May 30 16:04     Jun  1 11:07 +-1d        54.4 N    52.3 E
SpaceCom   May 31 13:15     Jun  1 13:44 +-18h       12.1 S    37.8 W

SatEvo     May 25 12:00     Jun  3       +-3d
SatEvo     May 27 19:00     Jun  1 23:00 +-1.4d
SatEvo     May 28 21:25     Jun  1 02:43 +-20h
SatEvo     May 29 16:20     Jun  1 06:25 +-18h
SatEvo     May 30 13:40     Jun  1 07:49 +-12h
SatEvo     May 31 17:30     Jun  1 07:48 +-9h        16.5 S    49.3 E
SatEvo     May 31 22:10     Jun  1 10:05 +-4h         0.0     157.0 W

Latest elset by Rainer Kracht (unchanged):
USA 144 Titan 4 r                                226 x 178 km
1 25745U 99028  B 99150.37082156  .02600828  00000-0  65758-3 0    00
2 25745  63.3428  72.0095 0036428 179.2003 180.7988 16.26397285    09

Updated SatEvo prediction:
USA 144 Titan 4 r                                178 x 152 km
1 25745U 99028  B 99152.02526141  .09079805  63781-1  46470-3 0 90008
2 25745  63.3382  65.3277 0019660 179.2492 180.7537 16.40422077   279
USA 144 Titan 4 r                                164 x 143 km
1 25745U 99028  B 99152.20792483  .15249160  19604+0  37085-3 0 90007
2 25745  63.3369  64.5789 0015389 179.2549 180.7474 16.44651782   305
USA 144 Titan 4 r                                147 x 133 km
1 25745U 99028  B 99152.32936509  .28303045  57468+0  31598-3 0 90009
2 25745  63.3355  64.0779 0010814 179.2588 180.7427 16.49644182   326
USA 144 Titan 4 r                                133 x 124 km
1 25745U 99028  B 99152.38991060  .52904418  27676+1  31598-3 0 90005
2 25745  63.3343  63.8264 0007334 179.2607 180.7403 16.54097861   331

Note: I now predict decay near a southbound equator crossing south of
Hawaii.
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Alan
-- 
 Alan Pickup | COSPAR 2707:  55d53m48.7s N  3d11m51.2s W   156m asl
 Edinburgh   | Tel: +44 (0)131 477 9144     Fax: +44 (0)870 0520750
 Scotland    | SatEvo page:   http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/