The following updated elements are based on observations by Tony Beresford and Greg Roberts from 2000 Nov 15 - 22: USA 129 15.0 3.0 0.0 5.1 v 1 24680U 96072A 00327.56751157 .00034561 00000-0 48735-3 0 05 2 24680 97.9083 28.8108 0471637 183.9935 175.7345 14.83740693 08 Mean residuals are about 0.01 deg. Based on their well-established historical behaviour, there is a strong possibility that both USA 129 and its sister, USA 116, will make major re-boost manoeuvres near the time that USA 129's argument of perigee next reaches the equator. Based on the above elements, the argument of perigee will be over the equator on 2000 Nov 23 at about 19:00 UTC, but the manoeuvre could occur during any passage through perigee within about 24 h before or after that time. Both satellites would manoeuvre within hours of one another. The manoeuvres would result in a mean motion of about 14.73 rev/d, causing the satellites to arrive about 10 min late after 24 hours. If the manoeuvres do not occur during the upcoming opportunity, then they are likely too occur in about 10 days, when USA 116's argument of perigee reaches the equator. 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 Nov 22 2000 - 11:05:19 PST