To add to Robert Fenske's report, I have approximate brightest magnitude (about +2) times for GRACE 1 and 2 for the last two nights, for Austin (30.3N, 97.8W): March 29 UTC: 1 - 2:45:04.0 and 2 - 2:45:32.0 March 30 UTC: 1 - 2:19:41.5 and 2 - 2:20:08.0 Here are some PPAS reports: Nadezhda 7 Rk (27535) -- 02-046 B 03-03-29 02:14:42.5 EC 103.6 0.5 11 9.41 GPS 2-22 Rk2 (22781, a PKM) -- 93-054 C 03-03-29 02:39:44.0 EC 31.0 0.5 3 10.3 Fleetsatcom 1 Rk (12908), low, fast, and very bright over south Texas -- 78-016 C 03-03-30 01:46:17.0 EC 99.4 0.3 9 11.04 +1.0 I tried timing NOAA 13 (93-050A, 22739) last night, but the times were, as Mike McCants says, "random numbers". Feng Yun 1 Rk (88-080B, 19468) maybe was not much better, maybe about 42 seconds overall. There was some updated information on ICESat on the newsgroup: >Power to the laser was off on 3/29 and can be expected >to be intermittent until the satellite has completed >its commissioning and calibration phase. I will post >announcements here when the altimeter is on and can be >expected to remain on for an extended period. <...> >For ICESat's calibration period the satellite has been >placed in an 8 day repeat orbit with an orbit maintenance >goal of keeping the satellite within plus or minus 800 >meters of a fixed ground track. The calibration phase >could be several months long so predictions of the ground >track can be made well in advance. This should also hold >true when the mission goes operational and the satellite >is put into a 183 day repeat orbit although precise pass >timing may be difficult to predict ahead. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Mar 30 2003 - 16:00:40 EST