Matt Fawcett recently asked ... > > Does anyone know what the oldest objects still in Earth Orbit are? > Is Telstar 1 the oldest of them all? > An examination of a recent "alldat.tle" reveals quite a few objects still in orbit which predate Telstar by several years, including, e.g. ... Vanguard 1 0.2 0.0 0.0 10.3 v 0.12 1 00005U 58002B 00088.79323596 +.00000336 +00000-0 +40487-3 0 04724 2 00005 034.2650 267.8426 1859653 284.0783 056.0927 10.82369685403803 Vanguard 2 0.5 0.0 0.0 9.8 d 0.43 1 00011U 59001A 00088.89891216 +.00005340 +00000-0 +29392-2 0 05813 2 00011 032.8697 291.6026 1510104 157.9248 209.4034 11.76501293741990 Vanguard 2 r 1.2 0.5 0.0 9.1 d 0.70 1 00012U 59001B 00088.48425900 .00004255 00000-0 25350-2 0 79 2 00012 32.9184 155.0603 1707370 301.7183 42.7987 11.36064516678269 Vanguard 1 r 1.2 0.5 0.0 9.1 d 0.35 1 00016U 58002A 00088.45739868 +.00000308 +00000-0 +45711-3 0 09305 2 00016 034.2558 217.8031 2035874 089.4958 293.6949 10.46610672683844 Vanguard 3 2.5 0.5 0.0 8.4 d 0.82 1 00020U 59007A 00089.13746849 +.00001701 +00000-0 +70228-3 0 09342 2 00020 033.3553 033.4938 1726816 236.9191 105.3802 11.43046483379000 Explorer 7 0.8 0.8 0.0 8.8 d 0.87 1 00022U 59009A 00089.08256676 +.00004341 +00000-0 +57584-3 0 03936 2 00022 050.3005 329.4425 0220985 244.9239 112.8615 14.66044787128447 Tiros 1 0.5 1.1 0.0 8.5 d 1.1 1 00029U 60002B 00089.15908275 +.00001707 +00000-0 +33450-3 0 07567 2 00029 048.3891 112.6225 0026836 077.6129 282.7765 14.67001923130646 Transit 2A 0.9 0.0 0.0 8.5 d 0.74 1 00045U 60007A 00089.17053326 +.00001480 +00000-0 +41342-3 0 08535 2 00045 066.6894 358.2272 0275923 280.0144 076.9920 14.29155312065104 Trans 2A Rk 1 00047U 60007C 00090.03036550 .00002827 00000-0 70214-3 0 8338 2 00047 66.6679 37.9775 0252249 289.2447 68.1521 14.35908796 71835 Echo 1 Rk 1 00050U 60009B 00085.17746270 -.00000074 00000-0 10000-3 0 1300 2 00050 47.2367 12.7108 0113887 266.3880 92.3879 12.19983087768531 Courier 1B 1 00058U 60013A 00086.54625843 .00000137 00000-0 81310-4 0 5055 2 00058 28.3275 129.5407 0165423 113.7723 248.0263 13.46067850942870 Courier 1B Rk 1 00059U 60013B 00088.85150694 +.00000169 +00000-0 +10360-3 0 08176 2 00059 028.2492 345.8835 0190291 234.0354 124.2416 13.52522241946266 Explorer 8 0.8 0.0 0.0 8.9 d 0.55 1 00060U 60014A 00090.34995489 .00042007 00000-0 25911-2 0 1127 2 00060 49.9071 51.2127 0551840 356.9430 2.8168 14.32359296927680 TIROS 2 1 00063U 60016A 00091.25015141 .00009513 00000-0 72130-3 0 6307 2 00063 48.5185 93.9998 0040564 3.7134 356.4094 15.02107066126408 etc. Several of these are visible in binoculars. Clear and dark skies! Ed Light Lakewood, NJ, USA N 40.1072, W 074.2317, Hgt +21 m (69 ft) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Apr 03 2000 - 07:05:45 PDT