Re: Chandra Burn Visibility?
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 19:38:30 -0500
The STS-93 presskit includes this page on Chandra:
http://www.shuttlepresskit.com/STS-93/payload45.htm
This page along with a lot of other information such as the parking orbit,
includes a table with a launch events timeline, and this:
>Chandra's Orbital Profile
> Unlike the close-to-Earth, circular orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope,
> the final orbit of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory will be highly elliptical.
> At its closest approach to Earth, the observatory will be at an altitude
> of about 6,200 miles. At its farthest, 87,000 miles, it will travel almost
> one-third of the way to the Moon. Due to this elliptical orbit, the
> observatory will circle the Earth every 64 hours....
Elsewhere, following a link on the Chandra News page:
http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/chandra/background.html
it says the inclination will be 28.5 degrees, apogee 86,992 statute miles,
perigee 6,214 statute miles, and orbital period 64 hours.
Another page:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/fact1.html#Overall
gives the orbital data as:
> Inclination: 28.5 degrees
> Perigee altitude: 10,000 kilometers
> Apogee altitude: 140,000 kilometers
> Ascending node: 200 degrees
> Argument of perigee: 270 degrees
Chandra home page: http://chandra.harvard.edu/index.html
Chandra publ. page: http://xrtpub.harvard.edu/pub.html
Chandra background: http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/chandra/background.html
STS-93 countdown: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-93/countdown.html
Shuttle home page: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/shuttle/index.html
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA