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(meteorobs) FW: Texas-Oklahoma re-entry
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From: Alan Pickup[SMTP:alan@wingardot demon.codot uk]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 12:07 PM
To: SeeSat-L
Subject: Texas-Oklahoma re-entry
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.wingardot demon.codot uk/satevo/
Scotland / Decay Watch: http://www.wingardot demon.codot uk/satevo/dkwatch/
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