Re: NROL-82: targeting sun-synchronous orbit

From: C. Bassa via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2021 19:00:41 +0200
The NRO just posted a tweet indicating that NROL-82 "is targeted for
no-earlier-than April 25, 12:39-15:57PDT".
https://twitter.com/NatReconOfc/status/1381648189267271680

This launch window correspond to 19:39 to 22:57UTC, and for a
sun-synchronous is consistent with the Eastern plane of KH-11
satellites, currently occupied by only USA 224 [37348/11002A].

With the NROL-65 launched which places USA 245 [39232/13043A] into
orbit on August 28, 2013, many European observers were fortunate
enough to observe the payload and Delta IV upper stage on their first
orbit after launch. The launch time and lighting conditions are
favorable that should NROL-82 be launched into a similar orbit (e.g.
apogee around 1000km at 30 deg North latitude), it would again be
visible from Europe.

Regards,
   Cees
_______________________________________________
Seesat-l mailing list
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
Received on Mon Apr 12 2021 - 12:02:28 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Mon Apr 12 2021 - 17:02:28 UTC