Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Reentry Sooner than Expected?
The following note was sent out to the EUVE Guest Observers email list.
For more information on this mission and its termination see:
Dear EUVE GOs,
It is looking like re-entry might be this month — a couple months sooner
than we all thought.
We are no longer relying on FDF for info on the orbit decay.
Heavens-above.com shows it at 302 km altitude today (this is down from
the original ~527 km). Apparently, once it gets down to about 300 km it
will be fall very quickly…. and death is imminent at 200 km. It has
been losing at least a km every day now for the last couple weeks.
Former EUVE scheduler Bryce Roberts found a website with reentry predicts
at www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/current.htm. This isn’t always up to
date, but the guy provides a script
(www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/#Download) that takes realtime NORAD
data (www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/science.txt) and comes up with
re-entry predicts. Using the script with the more recent numbers, the
latest is January 21!!!!
HOWEVER…
NORAD’s data is *usually* only good for the next 24 hours. Because of the
way they measure the drag component for orbits the data is very unrelaible
for reentry predictions. So, the above can never be very accurate…
Soon, the Aerospace Corporation will be following the EUVE reentry at
www.reentrynews.com/upcoming.html. They will start predictions once they
think we are about a month before the reentry.
I will likely email you all again before burn-up, but these sites will be
the best way for you to keep on top of it.
Happy New Year!
Jennifer Cullison
This list will be used primarily for news relating to the summer 2001
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