Leo and Jay, > Jay Respler is right and I got it wrong. > But it remains strange that the earlier epoch has a higher TLE#. It is not so much strange. U.S. SpaceCom sees one object in GTO (while it issued elements for it with two different catalog numbers) -- in fact it is the Briz-M detachable tank. EKRAN 21 1 26736U 01014A 01099.43967926 -.00000099 00000-0 00000+0 0 17 2 26736 47.9572 260.5505 7039165 0.5049 359.7483 2.24416905 127 SL-12 R/B 1 26737U 01014B 01099.44002941 -.00000099 00000-0 00000+0 0 16 2 26737 47.9548 260.5488 7039081 0.5066 0.0317 2.24417130 119 SL-12 R/B 1 26737U 01014B 01099.88526272 -.00000093 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00028 2 26737 047.9536 260.4452 7039241 000.6036 359.7346 02.24417139000139 SL-12 R/B 1 26737U 01014B 01100.77643975 -.00000076 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00042 2 26737 047.9512 260.2389 7039621 000.7947 359.7149 02.24417164000155 And, probably, two objects in GEO but under the same catalog numbers. I guess first elset below is for the satellite (after initial drift stopped) and the rest are for Briz-M upper stage (drift continued). EKRAN 21 1 26736U 01014A 01097.93867714 -.00000266 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00033 2 26736 000.4013 073.9714 0162224 018.6200 168.7042 01.00137055000087 EKRAN 21 1 26736U 01014A 01098.89835065 -.00000045 00000-0 00000+0 0 48 2 26736 1.8174 260.4420 0162225 192.1647 145.3614 0.98034764 97 EKRAN 21 1 26736U 01014A 01099.97918077 -.00000031 00000-0 00000+0 0 59 2 26736 2.1259 258.4755 0338111 213.1961 145.5154 0.98004585 106 EKRAN 21 1 26736U 01014A 01100.98496323 -.00000037 00000-0 00000+0 0 65 2 26736 2.0345 259.0879 0240143 199.8447 154.1653 0.97965450 118 In each set, at least one elset is omitted: #3 for GTO and #2 for GEO. The U.S. SpaceCom wasn't lucky with the launch because (1) no objects in LEO existed, and (2) Briz-M overperformed and apogee of the resulting GEO was some 37100 kilometers, not 35800 as expected, and (3) it occured late Friday evening, U.S. time. Naturally, U.S. SpaceCom still should renumber Mars Odyssey as 2001-014 and Ekran M #18 (aka Ekran 21 and Ekran M6) as 2001-013. Igor Lissov ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Thu Apr 12 2001 - 01:48:24 PDT