Observations received so far from Europe reveal that 03054A has manoeuvred as expected to lower its orbit, approximately matching the mean motion of 03054C. As of the epoch of the elements below, 03054C's ascending node trailed 03054A's by 6.7 s, with almost no motion between them. The 03054A elset is based upon the four best points over a one rev arc, so its mean motion must be considered to be approximate. I suspect that subsequent observations will reveal its mean motion even closer to that of 03054C. Observation arc 200 Jan 02.75 - 02.83 UTC: NOSS 3-2 (A) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9 v 1 28095U 03054A 04002.79906321 .00000058 00000-0 10000-3 0 09 2 28095 63.4304 223.8152 0124882 178.7169 181.4200 13.40589387 07 WRMS residuals = 0.020 deg Observation arc 2003 Dec 17.78 - 2004 Jan 02.83 UTC: NOSS 3-2 (C) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9 v 1 28097U 03054C 04002.79914105 .00000010 00000-0 16523-4 0 05 2 28097 63.4363 223.9703 0127366 180.2123 179.8869 13.40601019 04 WRMS residuals = 0.018 deg I still believe that their planned mean motion is about 13.4044 rev/d, but they may remain near 13.4060 rev/d for some time, until they arrive at some optimal phasing relative the other operational NOSS groups. For several months early in their mission, 01040A and 01040C cruised together in a similarly close formation for months, at a mean motion of about 13.4031 rev/d, then nearly simultaneously manoeuvred to 13.4042 rev/d, the average of operational NOSS at the time. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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