Derek Breit, David Brierley, Scott Campbell, Russell Eberst, Peter Gertson, Björn Gimle, Marco Langbroek, Pierre Neirinck, Greg Roberts, Peter Wakelin, Mike Waterman, Brad Young, and I, contributed observations used to determine one or more of the following element sets. I overlooked Björn Gimle's recent recovery after nearly 2 years, of one of the small ELINT payloads that piggy-backed into orbit on a KH-9: http://satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2009/0205.html Mike McCants produced the following elements. Additional observations are required to firm up the orbit; the object typically is faint, around mag 9-10. KH 9-18 ELINT 1283 X 1285 km 1 14139U 83060C 09108.87382061 .00000009 00000-0 32712-4 0 09 2 14139 96.6558 212.7533 0001784 147.4035 212.5964 12.93743139 07 Vortex 6 31705 X 39886 km 1 19976U 89035A 09110.32385476 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 09 2 19976 5.8847 11.9199 0969916 221.7659 130.3078 1.00242317 00 Arc 20090313.83-0420.83 WRMS resid 0.004 deg USA 129 293 X 939 km 1 24680U 96072A 09110.91861476 .00004013 00000-0 63760-4 0 04 2 24680 97.8404 164.6619 0462197 270.0871 84.7402 14.83298626 05 Arc 20090416.62-0420.93 WRMS resid 0.024 deg DSP F23 35754 X 35771 km 1 32287U 07054A 09110.04261953 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 02 2 32287 2.6367 265.0337 0002067 20.3711 339.2936 1.00361995 02 Arc 20090319.83-0420.86 WRMS resid 0.006 deg DSP 23 passed through 41.2 E on Apr 20 UTC, drifting east 0.317 deg/d, and accelerating. Prior to its failure last fall, it had been parked near 8.5 E. USA 202 35731 X 35889 km 1 33490U 09001A 09110.23349685 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 03 2 33490 2.8871 339.2307 0018760 91.8378 268.0318 1.00192931 06 Arc 20090415.73-0421.02 WRMS resid 0.004 deg USA 202's recent small manoeuvre occurred on Apr 15, near the perigee passage at 11:50 UTC. Its rate of westward drift increased from 0.253 deg/d to 0.29 deg/d. On Apr 20 UTC it passed through 46.5 E. If its destination is near 44 E, then I estimate that the manoeuvre to synchronize its mean motion with Earth's rotation would occur around Apr 28-30, near perigee, which is within a few minutes of 11:18 UTC. 05683A 350 X 31583 km 1 90040U 05683A 09110.76065781 .00000646 00000-0 72400-3 0 01 2 90040 27.9111 325.8613 6988823 22.4307 357.2216 2.59982881 04 Peter has recovered 05683A after 4.5 months; the above are approximate. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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