Status Report

Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Reentry Sooner than Expected?

By SpaceRef Editor
January 3, 2002
Filed under , ,

The following note was sent out to the EUVE Guest Observers email list.


For more information on this mission and its termination see:

  • Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Mission (7 June 1992 – 31 January 2001), NASA GSFC


  • Save EUVE Update 26 September 2000


    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
    EUVE conference and EUVE satellite re-entry. It is not related to the
    former egoinfo. To subscribe other email addresses to this list, send
    an e-mail to majordomo@listlink.berkeley.edu and include”subscribe
    euve_guest_observers” in the body of the message. Leave the subject
    line blank. If you have questions, email jennifer@ssl.berkeley.edu.

  • SpaceRef staff editor.