ARISSat-1 altitude is rapidly decreasing
The altitude of amateur radio satellite ARISSat-1 (145.950 MHz FM) continues to decline rapidly.
On Tuesday, Dec 27, 2011, ARISSat-1 was losing about 4.1 km (~2.5 miles) a day in altitude, by Friday Dec 30 2011 the decay was 5.9 km (3.6 miles) per day. This rate will continue to increase over the next days and ultimately result in the satellite burning up in the atmosphere.
Telemetry reports haven't shown a large increase in temperatures yet, please collect and report these values during each illumination period. There have been a number of people that continue to update their calculations on when the satellite will re-enter, now expected to be sometime this week.
The fall rate dh/dt is increasing dramatically. Be sure to do daily updates of the ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-B Keps from Celestrak.com. The ARISSat-1 orbit changes daily while the satellite continues to lose altitude.
Roland, PY4ZBZ from Brazil has updated graphs of height and fall rate on his Web site: http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/arissat.htm#r
ARISSat-1 Getting Hotter
http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/12/30/arissat-1-getting-hotter/
AMSAT News Service (ANS)
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/news/
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