I have been talking about the decaying military satellite that is going to land on us soon. I blogged about the fact that US Navy is going to try and blast it with a rocket soon.
Space and space communications is a subject that has interested me for a very long time. Back sometime around 1960 I was doing a written column on space communications. I listed the satellite in orbit and give location information and how you could pick up it's radio transmissions.
I also did a radio program for a year over WRUL radio called "Calling Shortwave Listeners" or something like that. Each week I would play the sounds of a different satellite.
I tracked a few satellites on my communications receiver. I can remember listening to Explorer VII (think that was it) and I would fall asleep with the headphones on and it would wake me up on it's next orbit.
So this is something that I have been interested in all my life.
Howard's Notebook began in 1982 and from the first I posted information on space and amateur radio and of course other subject.
Heavens Above web site has a page set up on the Decaying spy satellite USA 193.
They give data on the height and try and tell you when it will hit.
They also give you a link so you can see visible Passes. If you see it leave a comment about it here. I am sure it is not very bright but try and get a photo or video of the past and we will post it here.
The orbit data is extracted from the following two-line orbital elements,
1 29651U 06057A 08048.09979129 0.00255000 00000-0 31709-3 0 05
2 29651 58.4812 43.8747 0008000 75.1492 285.0544 16.07103915 03
Epoch (UTC):
2:23:42 AM, Sunday, February 17, 2008
Eccentricity:
0.0008000
Inclination:
58.4812°
Perigee Height:
249 km
Apogee Height:
260 km
Right Ascension of Ascending Node:
43.8747°
Argument of Perigee:
75.1492°
Revolutions per Day:
16.07103915
Mean Anomaly at Epoch:
285.0544°
Orbit Number at Epoch:
0
