[Vince Ferrer]

168 miles isn’t that low. Is it in a very elliptical orbit?

[Reno89519]

Doesn't seem to be. We've been watching it periodically online at Satview and it seems to be mostly at 211 KM. Right now at 208. If it elliptical, very minor.

Here: http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U

[Kay Ludlow]

From the german radar in the article, I can see why there is a predicting problem. The radar shows it tumbling erratically, not on any particular axis. You should go to the article, ignore the signup, and click spaceflight in the list across the top. Article links go vertically on the side and click the Taidong1 icon. It will be the first or second image in the article, the one with the play arrow to click on. Short video but shows the erratic tumble in radar, with some kind of image beside it to help you see what the orange radar is showing,

[rarestia]

168 miles is on the low side of LEO. Earth’s orbital velocity is ~28 km/h. In order to stay in orbit, an object would have to maintain that orbital velocity AND stay above 160 miles. This object’s orbit is decaying rapidly. Objects under 100 miles in altitude will be exposed to denser atmosphere and will fall back to Earth in relatively short order.