Re: possible reentry sight of 2000-59B

From: Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Date: Tue Oct 03 2000 - 15:59:03 PDT

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    Tristan writes...
    
    >I have a report of someone who lives in Ostend, Belgium who saw a satellite
    >moving from West to East in the Morning of October 3 at approximately 4h55m
    >UTC.
    >
    >He reported that the satellite was moving with a comet like tail behind and
    >it had a brightness of about 1 or 2.
    >
    >I believe that this was the beginning of the reentry of the GE-1A Proton
    >third stage(2000-59B).
    >
    >Can someone confirm this ?
    
    I can confirm that this object did, indeed, pass over Belgium at about
    this time. The appropriate published elset is..
    GE-1A Proton r                                   155 x 118 km
    1 26555U 00059B   00277.19025163  .33326542  00000-0  22311-3 0   104
    2 26555  51.6002 343.0929 0028216 276.9486  82.9066 16.51034700   255
    
    This orbit suggests that it should have emerged from eclipse near 51.3
    N, 2.2 W, at ~04:57:30 UTC and reached 50.4 N, 3.9 E, one minute later.
    It would probably have been a spectacularly bright and fast-moving
    object but I do not think it should have been showing any re-entry
    phenomena, such as a tail. It was about 158 km above ground and quite
    close to its apogee point.
    
    Alan
    -- 
    Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707:  55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W      156m asl
    Edinburgh  / SatEvo & elsets:    http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/
    Scotland  / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/
    
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