Frote/Pegasus Launch 8/29

Eric Rosenberg (erosenberg@orbcomm.net)
Fri, 29 Aug 1997 18:48:39 GMT

Forte is alive and in the predicted orbit.

Who will be the first to spot it ?

AOS of FORTE on 401.565MHz at 19:59:06 in 137deg
LOS of FORTE  on 401.565MHz at 20:11:01 in 50deg
My POS: 57:00 N  18:23E about 10m over sea level
Recciver AOR-8000 and 10element yagi for cut for 432MHz
Signal weak (as expected) S1-S2, and clear modulation

Congratulations to the team !!

Kim Pettersson 
kip@grk.se
Gotland Island
Sweden


>The next Pegasus XL launch is scheduled for Friday, August 29, 1997 at 
>1500 UTC. The satellite being launched is FORTE (Fast On-orbit 
>Recording of Transient Events). 
>
>FORTE UHF beacon: 401.565 MHz
>MODULATION: either 256 of 1024 bps bi-phase, max 3db BW: 16KHz 
>EIRP: about 1 Watt into a 1/4 wave Monopole 

>FORTE
>1 00001U 99001A   97241.63283565  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    15 
>2 00001  70.0020 272.5930 0001034 195.6230 331.1350 14.27534500    12

Add two minutes to the epoch to correct the launchtime to 15:02