Re: Was it Soyuz TM-27 or Progress M-37?
JRBURCA@aol.com
Mon, 2 Feb 1998 16:22:25 EST
Mike McCants identified my unknown at 02:33:40 UTC Jan. 31 UTC
(Jan. 30 local) as Cosmos 100 r. At the bottom is my reply to Mike.
He gave these TLE's:
Mir
1 16609U 86017A 98030.84487985 .00008585 00000-0 10263-3 0 2014
2 16609 51.6580 20.6008 0004851 324.2370 35.8315 15.61908057682579
Progress
1 25102U 97081A 98030.90893767 -.00001066 00000-0 -61003-5 0 399
2 25102 51.6595 20.2789 0004202 334.6655 25.4146 15.61592878 6506
STS-89
1 25143U 98003A 98030.91012446 -.00000119 00000-0 44399-5 0 281
2 25143 51.6386 20.2330 0017821 348.2086 32.7758 15.65924685 1213
Soyuz
1 25146U 98004A 98030.92783832 -.00001630 11357-4 34733-5 0 78
2 25146 51.6547 20.4091 0026680 124.7888 235.5611 16.00451947 206
Cosmos 100 r 3.8 2.6 0.0 5.1 v
1 01844U 65106B 98029.08972634 +.00006673 +00000-0 +15930-3 0 06453
2 01844 064.9723 042.0972 0020825 266.8591 093.0109 15.42189159756788
And wrote about Soyuz:
<< Apparently the Soyuz stays in a much lower orbit until "just the right
time" and then performs the rendezvous within 1/2 orbit and then
docks. They (with their limited batteries) don't have any incentive
to "hang around" near Mir. >>
And as to why nobody reported seeing Soyuz:
<< Because it was much later and much fainter. >>
My reply to Mike:
_____________________________________________
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply. The unknown object that was the 2nd object after
the Shuttle you identified to be Cosmos 100 r. I ran the prediction with
STS Plus and yes, indeed, everything fit to my satisfaction. Cos100r
culminated at 02:33:32 UTC Jan. 31 UTC (Friday night local) az. 116.4
elev. 56. I had written that it had culminated az. 135 elev. 65-75 at
02:33:40 UTC. The difference in az. & elev. is within my tolerance for
error just going by memory but my time was just off by 8 sec. So,
I'm convinced it was Cosmos 100 r. Thanks again.
And thanks for confirming that the object closely trailing Mir was
Progress M-37.
Jake Rees
Burbank, Calif.
(34.164 N, 118.341 W)