According to Phil Chien, the launch window runs from 3 PM EST to 5:30 PM EST, on 5 Dec, or 20:00 to 22:30 UTC. The following is the speculation/prognostication I sent him this evening. I would be interested in your ideas on this. Here is a summary of southbound orbital plane crossings of known candidate constellations: 5 Dec 95 UTC ----------------- 00:46 NOSS 2-1 02:10 Lacrosse 2 16:50 NOSS 2-2 18:10 KH 11-8 21:40 USA 86 6 Dec 95 UTC ----------------- 00:33 NOSS 2-1 01:56 Lacrosse 2 As I see it, the best candidates are: Lacrosse 3 - liftoff at the start of the window (20:00 UTC on 5 Dec) would place it almost exactly 90 deg west of Lacrosse 2, which seems to be a logical plane spacing. A late launch would result in a reduced spacing, but this could be remedied by lingering in a lower transfer orbit for a time - which is a demonstrated capability of Lacrosse (at least when shuttle launched). Launching at the very end of the window (22:30 UTC) would come close to providing spacing similar to that of the two KH-11 planes, i.e. the amount of Earth rotation plus orbit precession during to orbital periods, 49.7 deg. A long shot, I know. Note that the failed launch on 2 Aug 93 occurred at almost the exact time to produce such a spacing, except to the east of Lacrosse 2, instead of to the west. It seems like a stretch to think that SAR platforms would benefit from a similar spacing to visual/IR platforms, but I wanted to include this so that I will look like a genius (well, at least a clairvoyant) if it actually comes to pass. NOSS 2-3 - liftoff at 20:33 would place it 60 deg east of NOSS 2-2 and 60 deg west of NOSS 2-1, i.e. right down the middle of the 120 deg angle separating NOSS 2-1 and NOSS 2-2. Of course, I do not know why they would not want to bisect the 240 deg angle on the other side, and obtain three equally spaced planes. USA 86 - its plane *does* pass southbound over the pad during the window, but this is a very new spacecraft, which seemed to be operating normally this past summer. Its 7 year old sister would seem to be a more likely candidate for replacement. Also, the closing of the park to the southeast would be unnecessary if the destination was a sun-synchronous orbit. Of course it may be none of the above - the spooks have provided plenty of surprises in recent years. bye for now