Previous discussion: >>> >>From a Kevin Fetter posting: >>> >IKONOS 1 >>> >1 28000U 99XXXX 99117.80454155 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 0 >>> >2 28000 98.1840 185.3400 0010520 69.9850 279.8240 14.62686263 04 >>> >>Philip Chien wrote: >>> this is incorrect. It's the orbit of a satellite launching to the >>> North-Northwest from Vandenberg which would be a violation of the range >>> rules. The Athena/Ikonos launch was to the South-Southwest. > >"Bj–rn Gimle" <b_gimle@algonet.se> and others said: > >>No, it's not. My predictions showed a S-N pass around 19:47 UT at 59 N > >yup. My fault. I was half asleep and fully non-functional when I crunched >the orbit. The funny thing is Justin Ray (Fla Today Online) and I were >chatting the previous week about with a Titan IV investigation underway we >really didn't need to have another failure investigation to follow at the >same time .... ARGH! Plus the technical conference "Space Congress" is in >town, plus the dress rehearsal for the next shuttle flight, plus the >Milstar launch on Friday, etc. etc. It's a busy week and my cloning >machine's on the blink. > >No new details on what happened to Athena / Ikonos but I may get some more >details later today. I checked the sat catalog report and so far nothing >reported in orbit from this launch. So far each of the "Civilian Spy Sats" >(Earthwatch, Ikonos) has had major failures ... The conspiracist in me >wonders if they're related ... > I'm a little confused about this. Did it launch to the north or south? On the web page: http://www.flatoday.com/space/today/042799k.htm A spokesman for Lockheed Martin was asked and replied: Question: Please give us additional details from what you know from telemetry. Did the upper stage complete its second burn and did the spacecraft separate? Larry Price, Lockheed Martin's director of small launch vehicle programs: "We have telemetry until nominal loss of signal (LOS) from Vandenberg. We are analyzing all of that telemetry currently. Spacecraft deployment was planned over Malindi in Africa and we don't have that telemetry. So we are analyzing from the information that we do have." ============= It seems that in order to travel over Africa that it did have to be launched toward the south. Is this right? Ralph McConahy 34.8829N 117.0064W 670m