The following elements are based on observations by Tony Beresford and Greg Roberts from 2000 Nov 24 - 29: USA 129 15.0 3.0 0.0 5.1 v 1 24680U 96072A 00334.84947917 .00053030 00000-0 76638-3 0 00 2 24680 97.8152 35.0609 0465688 158.9846 203.1304 14.84495183 05 Mean residuals are about 0.01 deg. Both Tony and Greg have reported the object as a no-show on 2000 Nov 30 UTC, suggesting that it may have manoeuvred. If so, and assuming it was the expected major re-boost, then earliest it could have occurred would have been the first perigee passage after Greg's sighting late on the 29th, resulting in this approximate orbit: 1 70000U 00334.87951389 .00040000 00000-0 60988-3 0 08 2 70000 97.8152 35.0905 0513000 158.8860 3.5000 14.73500000 06 I recommend that observers plot both of the above orbits, to aid in recovering the object. If it does not show up in the pre-manoeuvre orbit, then the post-manoeuvre search orbit provides the worst case scenario in terms of how late and off course the object might be. I had hoped to issue this in time for Greg to use tonight, but I could not make room in my schedule. I may post additional search orbits later. 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 : Thu Nov 30 2000 - 13:58:24 PST