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To: r9etb

I don't know if they want to use up fuel chasing the thing down, especially if it's in a lower orbit. OTOH, it can't be too far below, since it's matching speed. Considerably lower, and it would be moving at a higher rate of speed.


129 posted on 09/19/2006 10:11:38 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (I've had it with these &%#@* jihadis on these &%#@* planes!)
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To: SlowBoat407
I don't know if they want to use up fuel chasing the thing down, especially if it's in a lower orbit. OTOH, it can't be too far below, since it's matching speed. Considerably lower, and it would be moving at a higher rate of speed.

They're pretty much co-orbital, so it wouldn't take much propellant to get close, and they typically carry a large margin for rendezvous missions. They had no rendezvous difficulty, so they've got propellant to spare. The excess would therefore be burned off as a "wasting" component of the deorbit burn. So they could potentially use it for other things.

Whether or not they actually do try to get close will depend on a number of factors.

137 posted on 09/19/2006 10:15:44 AM PDT by r9etb
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