Since my earlier post, I have received a number of accurate observations made on two consecutive passes, which confirm the manoeuvre, and my speculation that its main effect was to increase the inclination by nearly 0.2 deg. Also, the apogee has been raised by about 7 km. Observation arc 2004 Mar 18.85 - 18.92 UTC: USA 129 15.0 3.0 0.0 5.3 v 1 24680U 96072A 04078.90726061 .00019764 00000-0 26010-3 0 06 2 24680 97.9883 140.4603 0532000 184.8784 174.7122 14.72332198 08 WRMS residuals = 0.039 deg Due to the short arc, I set the eccentricity to conform with my assumption that the mean perigee distance has remained unchanged at about 284 km relative Earth's mean radius of 6371 km. I also froze the B* decay term at its pre-manoeuvre value. The change in inclination was required to correct the perturbing effects of solar gravity, which strongly affects sun-synchronous orbits. USA 129 last made a significant inclination correction nearly three years ago, as apparent in the these pre and post-manoeuvre elsets, about 12 h apart: 1 24680U 96072A 01187.14410790 .00030059 00000-0 38985-3 0 03 2 24680 97.8231 248.9330 0479823 167.5134 193.8435 14.83663532 05 1 24680U 96072A 01187.64718750 .00025598 00000-0 34897-3 0 05 2 24680 97.9346 249.4231 0505900 166.6784 0.0000 14.77193155 05 Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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