Satellite USA 193

  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