Small Spacecraft, Space Environments, and Instrumentation Technologies, eds. F.A. Allahdadi, E.K. Casani, T.D. Maclay, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 3116, pp. 168--176 (1997)
 

Satellite decays photographed by a fireball network

Jiri Borovicka and Pavel Spurny

Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 251 65 Ondrejov Observatory, Czech Republic

Abstract. Decays of satellites 1991-005B and 1994-087B were photographed by fish-eye cameras of the European Fireball Network. A method of computation of the curved satellite trajectories from the photographs taking into account Earth rotation was developed. The position of decaying satellites in space was determined with the precision of about 100 m along a 1000-km long path. Velocity could be determined on a part of the path. The results are compared with trajectories predicted with a satellite tracking program.

Key words: photographic networks, satellite re-entries

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