Reply To: Poor Peregrine

Forums Spacecraft Poor Peregrine Reply To: Poor Peregrine

#621266
Nick James
Participant

Using astrometry from me (970), Peter Birtwhistle (J95) and Patrick Wiggins (718) obtained since the propellant leak stopped I get a nice fit (3-day arc, 0″.2 residuals) to a gravitational only orbit for the lander using Findorb. This gives a predicted Earth impact time of 23:44 UTC on 2024-01-18 over northern Australia in daylight. The lander is potentially imageable from the UK a few hours before re-entry on the night of the 18th as it moves through Cancer, low down in the east after sunset, although it will be moving very rapidly across the sky.