Observations made late on 2001 May 09 have been reported by Bram Dorreman, Russell Eberst and Rainer Kracht. Here is the updated orbit: USA 129 15.0 3.0 0.0 5.1 v 1 24680U 96072A 01129.89885417 .00020907 00000-0 31872-3 0 02 2 24680 97.9334 192.8628 0476361 356.6127 3.1942 14.81190194 07 The size of yesterday's manoeuvre was somewhat greater than I had estimated based on the early observations, but still not the major maneouvre. The maneouvre appears to have been primarily a perigee-raising and an increase in inclination. It is still possible for the major re-boost to occur over the next 24 h. If the object has manoeuvred subsequent to the above elements' epoch, then it will be running significantly late and off course. How much depends on the time elapsed since the manoeuvre. To aid observers in preparing to search for the object post-maneouvre, I have computed the approximate orbit that would have resulted had the manoeuvre occurred at the first perigee following tonight's final pass tracked from Europe: 1 70100U 01129.96579282 .00020000 00000-0 31348-3 0 06 2 70100 97.9334 192.9293 0508000 356.3944 0.1000 14.74000000 04 I recommend plotting both of the above elements. If no manoeuvre has occurred, then the object will be on the path of the first elset. If a maneouvre has occurred, then the latest it could arrive will be given by the second elset. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed May 09 2001 - 17:38:41 PDT