Re: orbital debris report

From: ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 20:28:54 EST

  • Next message: Markus Mehring: "Re: orbital debris report"

    > Does anyone know where the 'Orbital debris quarterly News' 
    > can be found these days ?  I have a feeling that this 
    > report has been terminated.
    >
    > The URL: http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/news_index.html 
    > is gone.
    
    At the foot of the page above, I found this:
    
    > DAS, ORDEM2000, and back issues of the Orbital Debris 
    > Quarterly News can be downloaded via FTP at JSC-SN-Io.jsc.nasa.gov
    
    I think that project may have fallen victim to budget cuts.
    
    Different topic.  In researching the astronaut status of X-15 
    test pilots (one of whom, Michael Adams, was killed in a 
    flight that went higher than 50 miles/80 km), I came across 
    this:
    
    > ... the Soviet Union put in orbit an unmanned satellite, in 
    > very low orbit, whose attitude was controlled by aerodynamic 
    > forces. The real reason of such an experiment is not yet 
    > known. It is known however that it successfully described a 
    > few orbits just above the 100 Km line (how much higher I do 
    > not know), but collapsed rapidly shortly after he crossed, 
    > or got too much close to, the 100 Km. Karman line. 
    
    -- http://www.fai.org/astronautics/100km.asp
    
    I'm curious to know the identity of that very low satellite 
    and if anyone observed it visually.  The time was given as 
    either the 1960s or the 1970s.
    
    Third topic -- very minor.  I've heard and seen the phrases 
    "in orbit" and "on orbit" and the adjectival forms "in-orbit" 
    and "on-orbit".  I think that back in the 60s and 70s it was 
    always "in" not "on" and wonder when/why the terminology has
    changed.  Via Google I found pages where both are used in
    the same articles.  (The "in" use seems more correct to me.)
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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