As the list of no-show reports grows, it becomes more likely that Lacrosse 2 has indeed been de-orbited, a few weeks after the 20th anniversary of its launch, on 1991 March 08. Today happens to be the 20th anniversary of Russell Eberst's report of his discovery of Lacrosse 2 in orbit, assisted by Pierre Neirinck. Souvenir copy appended. Nearly the entire orbital history of Lacrosse 2 has been documented by hobbyists. Here is Jonathan McDowell's archive of our elements through the end of 2009: http://www.planet4589.org/space/elements/21100/S21147 Ted Molczan Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1991 03:33:00 -0500 From: RDE@STARLINK.ROE.AC.UK To: molczan@utorgpu ......... and the answer is 68 degrees. Once again the reliable team of Eberst and Neirinck provide the missing information. On 1991 March 28, Russell Eberst made two observations of an unknown satellite. The circular orbit fitted through the positions indicated an inclination of 68 degs, and a revs/day of about 14.6. Since very few objects have inclinations close to 68degs and since the R.A. of node fitted in nicely with the launch calculations made by Ted Molczan, it seemed likely that the object seen might be the Lacrosse 2 satellite believed to have been launched from Vandenberg on March 8. However, as the weather was deteriorating in Edinburgh, the observed fixes were phoned to Pierre Neirinck at Malo-les-Bains in France. He was able to make confirmatory observations on the following evening on two transits. Then from the available observations he calculated the following orbit: 91-17A 91 89.9469666 .00015144 67.9954 004.0288 .0004819 088.2277 271.8275 14.65533012 The orbit is close to 29:2 resonance, or in other words the ground track nearly repeats itself after two days in 29 orbits. On April 1, the object was seen again through fairly thick cloud (no fixes) and second brighter object was seen at 20.49 U.T. This is believed to be the Titan last stage. Two fixes were made which showed it to be in at 68deg orbit. At present, the observations are being reduced. Observers are encouraged to make further observations of one or both of these objects. Best wishes Russell 1991 April 2 _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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