#16885 = 86- 57 A = Molniya 1-67 SpaceCom remains coy about the orbital evolution over the final days of this object, eventually releasing only single elsets on the 26th and 27th, the last almost 12 hours before the claimed decay time at Jan 27 Jan 27 14:51 +-1h near 28.1 S, 121.5 E. Because of this I have made no independent decay time prediction using SatEvo. Assuming that the object decayed near 14:51 UTC, an approximate elset for the start of this rev might be: Molniya 1-67 708 x 76 km 1 16885U 86057A 00027.55953314 4.89125154 13086+2 20113-2 0 97622 2 16885 62.0148 126.3996 0466271 265.9361 88.7231 15.58591049 99414 I have received a report from Dr James Biggs, the Government Astronomer for Western Australia/Director Perth Observatory, that reads... "Last night we had a really bright meteor-like event visible over a wide part of Western Australia. Using naked-eye reports (at around 2000/01/27 1450 UT) from the public we have determined the object was probably travelling along a trajectory starting a little west of south (crossing the coast east of Albany) and finishing a little east of north. Apparently the object disintegrated in "mid-air" over the sea approximately north of Kunnunura (near the border with the Northern Territory). It was seen by people spread out about 2,000km across the state. This is very unusual for a meteor as it suggests a 'grazing' trajectory." This trajectory is in excellent agreement with a prediction based on the predicted elset above, and with SpaceCom's decay time and position. There is no doubt that this reentry was observed over Western Australia. #25176 = 88- 11 B = COMETS H2 r SpaceCom has issued its first decay warning for this, predicting the decay for Feb 1 12:41 +-2d. A SatEvo analysis gives Feb 1 11:27 +-1d. Times as always are UTC. This enters eclipse near southern apex (30 deg S) at about 20:00 local time and leaves eclipse while northbound near 24 deg N at 05:30 local time. #26055 = 97- 47 G = Yamal 101 aux motor Two further elsets have been issued at last, both for the same orbit and both showing a considerable increase in mean motion (and implied drag) over only nine hours. The latest one is: Yamal 101 aux motor 1210 x 110 km 1 26055U 99047G 00024.81388515 .99999999 13406-4 38198-2 0 84 2 26055 47.5342 179.7062 0781507 61.9025 82.8741 14.70415527 442 It is quite possible that this has decayed already, perhaps even on the 24th. See http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/ for more details. Alan -- Alan Pickup | COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl Edinburgh | Tel: +44 (0)131 477 9144 Fax: +44 (0)870 0520750 Scotland | SatEvo page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jan 28 2000 - 13:37:50 PST