Texas-Oklahoma re-entry

From: Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 09:07:12 PDT

  • Next message: Matson, Robert: "Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas reentry"

    Since both I and Harro Zimmer speculated (independently) on Saturday
    that Texas - Oklahoma event on Friday evening (local time) might have
    been the re-entry of a piece of the Glonass launch a few hours earlier,
    a further elset has appeared for the so-called Proton "platform"...
    
    C 2374? Proton platform                          152 x 129 km
    1 26567U 00063D   00287.83019657  .14539302  81605-5  14433-3 0    26
    2 26567  64.8034 269.9668 0017643   9.1093 351.7127 16.49742837    09
    
    My SatEvo evolution for the final orbits runs...
    
    C 2374? Proton platform                          145 x 125 km
    1 26567U 00063D   00287.89064770  .18678256  26819+0  14384-3 0 90028
    2 26567  64.8028 269.7289 0015132   9.0831 350.9442 16.51735784    17
    C 2374? Proton platform                          136 x 120 km
    1 26567U 00063D   00287.95114844  .25529299  76537+0  14274-3 0 90023
    2 26567  64.8019 269.4900 0012043   9.0568 350.9649 16.54325171    27
    C 2374? Proton platform                          121 x 112 km
    1 26567U 00063D   00288.01152910  .56971797  59774+1  18830-3 0 90022
    2 26567  64.8006 269.2505 0007381   9.0305 350.9828 16.58731241    33
    
    The last of these orbits takes it along the following track over the USA
    (output based on that from Mike Mccants's LATLONG program):
                    UTC        Lat     Long
                  h  m  s     degN     degW
                  0 24 30     29.5    104.4
                  0 25  0     31.3    103.4
                  0 25 30     33.1    102.3
                  0 26  0     34.9    101.1
                  0 26 30     36.7     99.9
                  0 27  0     38.4     98.6
                  0 27 30     40.2     97.3
                  0 28  0     41.9     95.9
                  0 28 30     43.6     94.4
                  0 29  0     45.2     92.8
                  0 29 30     46.9     91.1
                  0 30  0     48.5     89.3
    
    The object had passed through perigee at 00:19 UTC when it was over the
    E Pacific, en route to the Mexico coast, so a decay along this arc is
    quite likely.
    
    This track is very close to my estimate on Saturday - the object would
    have passed 3.1 deg W of Abilene, TX, at 00:25:18 UTC (19:25:18 local
    time) and almost directly over Lubbock, TX, 19 seconds later. the track
    would have taken it NNE over Oklahoma and Kansas towards Lincoln, NE,
    which it would have reached at about 00:27:43 UTC were it still in
    orbit.
    
    I am not certain of the accuracy of these times but, if the orbital
    period was correct at the initial elset, then I doubt if they are wrong
    by more than about 10 seconds. 
    
    In my opinion, the object sighted was, indeed, the re-entry of the
    Proton platform. I understand that this is a cylinder 3.7m in diameter
    and 4m long, being the casing of the Proton's 4th stage. It weighs some
    800 kg.
    
    
    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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