Bob, > USA-137 is also synchronised with USA-184, the previous SIGINT launch. This > is because they both carry an Interim Polar EHF Communications package. It > is designed for two satellite operation and they reach polar apogee close > together in time but sufficiently separated to ensure 24 hour coverage. The > third package is scheduled to launch on the replacement for USA-137. After > that, the fully-designed Polar EHF system will come on line. According to http://www.navy.mil/navydata/policy/vision/vis99/v99-ch3e.html and other sources including budget justifications for program element 063432F, the first Interim Polar EHF payload was launched in November 1997. So it should be onboard USA-136 / Trumpet (08 Nov 1997) and not onboard USA-137 / SDS-C (29 Jan 1998). Sincerely, Igor Lissov ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 16 2008 - 09:05:43 UTC