I've been rummaging through old elsets of the 1961 Transit AbleStar rocket breakup and noticed that the earliest elsets for 1961-015EE somehow got mixed up with those of the ED fragment. From circa 1962-1964, the ED elsets describe two distinctly different orbits, one higher and more eccentric and one lower and more circular, more or less alternately, first one and then the other, and there are no elsets for EE at all. Then in 1964 EE gets its own elsets, and, surprise, surprise, they follow on from the lower, more circular orbits previously attributed to ED, while the ED elsets stop alternating between two kinds of orbits and just stay with the higher orbit. Go to Space Track and ask for the elsets for objects 404 and 405 from 1962 through 1965, say, and you'll see what I mean. I gather this sort of thing happens from time to time with long series of fragments. Quite amusing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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