David Brierley wrote: > No sign of 03-9B at 20:50 UT +/-3 mins. [2003 Apr 16] I suspect it may have manoeuvred to lower its orbit to match 03009A's mean motion. It would have been about 4.5 min early if the manoeuvre occurred at the epoch of the latest elements issued by Mike McCants. Here is a search elset based upon that idea: IGS 1B 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.9 v 1 70000U 03102.85490120 .00005000 00000-0 20167-3 0 09 2 70000 97.4061 174.9841 0004070 195.2811 164.7187 15.26130000 00 Realistically, the manoeuvre occurred a bit later, so the object should be a bit late relative this elset, up to 1.5 min late. My guess is that it now trails 03009A by 20 min (a nice round number), in which case it would be in this orbit: IGS 1B 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.9 v 1 70000U 03105.93722765 .00005000 00000-0 19397-3 0 07 2 70000 97.4061 178.1071 0007000 243.8992 116.1527 15.26130637 02 which would have made it nearly 4 min earlier than David expected, and nearly 1 min earlier than he started observing: I would not be surprised to see frequent small manoeuvres by both satellites until the design orbits are achieved. Afterward, periodic manoeuvres would be required to maintain the orbits. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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