Sandro Boschetti wrote: > I thougt about the Columbia disaster and > found the report from Ted from Jan 22. 2003 > > http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2003/0268.html > > He noted a discrepancy with the decay rate of STS-107. > Could a demaged wing cause such a higher decay?? > Or is the upper atmosphere just too thin for that? Columbia's actual rate of orbital decay was not at issue. The problem was that the decay terms in the orbital elements were inconsistent with the actual rate of decay. The cause was incorrect conversion of elements based on the shuttle program's orbital model, to the model used for 2-line elements, US Space Command's SGP4. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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