Re: Decay watch: Molniya r and platform
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 10 Oct 1998 19:30:58 +0100
The Molniya rocket was 4 seconds late against yesterday's prediction at
the epoch of the latest elset (already 7 hours old):
Moln 1T? Moln r1 282 x 187 km
1 25486U 98054B 98283.47388963 .01776893 83120-5 85662-3 0 563
2 25486 62.8094 267.8736 0072131 134.7608 225.9788 16.14464386 1845
My forecast for decay continues to slip and now stands at October 13.6
+-0.6 day. The current evolution:
Moln 1T? Moln r1 271 x 185 km
1 25486U 98054B 98284.03086040 .02416918 23453-2 10170-2 0 90567
2 25486 62.8086 265.6353 0065436 134.8687 225.6645 16.17006610 1939
Moln 1T? Moln r1 260 x 182 km
1 25486U 98054B 98284.52519130 .02843573 36463-2 10348-2 0 90565
2 25486 62.8077 263.6415 0058860 134.9649 225.5138 16.19591850 2011
Moln 1T? Moln r1 246 x 178 km
1 25486U 98054B 98285.01865951 .03484718 54903-2 10481-2 0 90565
2 25486 62.8067 261.6429 0051464 135.0615 225.3561 16.22691615 2091
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The final official elset for the platform is:
Molniya 1T? platform 148 x 118 km
1 25487U 98054C 98283.26492088 .31622359 89210-5 19704-3 0 666
2 25487 62.8077 268.4593 0022970 118.3630 243.8985 16.52471399 1813
Compared with the prediction I posted yesterday, it had been running 9
seconds late at an elset for 98283.082. Decay probably followed perigee
on the above orbit, at about October 10.28 (06:50 UTC). The track during
this period took it from Quebec towards the easternmost point of Brazil.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Home: alan@wingar.demon.co.uk +44 (0)131 477 9144
Scotland | SatEvo page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/