Tom Wagner wrote: >Also, I read, "Typically, the expected lifetime of a >satellite is 5 to 8 years." > >Does this mean that they typically decay in that amount >of time? I think Kevin is correct about the electronics, but they may also have in mind to deorbit them (actually remove from orbit, not move to a graveyard orbit like geosats, which for some inexplicable reason is called "deorbiting"). Remember there was much talk about the entire constellation being brought down. >I think the illustration of the flaring Iridium satellite >flaring is not accurate though. I'm not sure what that little composite illustration means, but the flare itself, a time exposure, is correct. But it does look like they show a reflection off the top of the satellite, which is not what makes the flares, of course. Mike and I saw two fairly bright solar panel flares less than one minute apart on Saturday evening, Iridium 86 "?" and Iridium 13, predicted by Rob Matson's Iridflar -- between 2:24:00 and 2:25:00 May 23 UTC, from BCRC. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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