Peter Wakelin has reported that USA 202 has manoeuvred to approximately synchronous mean motion: http://satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2009/0313.html It was nearly one minute early relative the epoch 09117.22032098 elements. Assuming the manoeuvre occurred on Apr 28, near the passage through perigee at 11:21:40 UTC, and including a synthetic observation at that point, yields nearly a synchronous orbit: USA 202 35743 X 35829 km 1 33490U 09001A 09118.21906933 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 04 2 33490 2.8772 339.7345 0010178 87.2915 272.4444 1.00276756 01 Arc 20090428.47-0429.08 WRMS resid 0.002 deg Removing the synthetic observation, forcing the above to nearly exactly synchronous, and holding the other elements constant yields: USA 202 35744 X 35830 km 1 33490U 09001A 09118.21904437 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 01 2 33490 2.8772 339.7345 0010178 87.2915 272.4444 1.00273800 08 Arc 20090429.03-0429.08 WRMS resid 0.002 deg Mike McCants offers a similar estimate: 1 33490U 09001A 09118.21906308 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 00 2 33490 2.8871 339.2098 0009000 102.4684 257.7708 1.00270000 01 All of the above yield similar predictions over the next few days. The spacecraft is near 44.3 E, which appears to be its initial operational location. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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