Russell has finalized his observations, and Alberto has reported his. I am awaiting clarification from Viktor regarding reporting format, but in the meantime, here are a couple of possibilities: Allowing all elements to vary, yields a nearly circular orbit: STSS-ATRR 864 X 876 km 1 34903U 09023A 09125.96358401 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 09 2 34903 98.9513 224.2461 0007714 226.2723 133.7807 14.06067719 00 Arc 20090505.9-0505.97 WRMS resid 0.067 deg Forcing inclination to 99 deg and eccentricity to 0.003, yields: STSS-ATRR 848 X 892 km 1 34903U 09023A 09125.96355331 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 08 2 34903 99.0000 224.3195 0030000 162.0781 198.1452 14.06073374 08 Arc 20090505.9-0505.97 WRMS resid 0.072 deg The latter would imply that further manoeuvres to circularize the orbit could be expected. As always, additional observations over a longer arc will clarify matters. As for the 2nd stage, radio observations by Greg Roberts (South Africa) and Richard Flagg (Hawaii) were in reasonably close agreement with my estimated elements, adjusted (this time correctly) for the 25 s late launch: STSS-ATRR r 1 71950U 09125.95957157 .00247275 00000-0 30000-3 0 03 2 71950 112.7800 216.3633 0519924 282.5289 71.8193 15.08518086 04 It was perhaps 30 s to 60 s late, but for tonight I recommend allowing for prediction time uncertainty of at least several minutes. Also, inclination and plane could easily be out by 1 deg. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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