Greg Roberts' latest observations have helped bring the elements of these objects into sharper focus. USA 129's orbit seems to have been altered to more closely match that of the newly launched USA 186, but the number of points remains small, so further tracking is required to be certain: USA 129 15.0 3.0 0.0 5.3 v 256 X 1037 km 1 24680U 96072A 05307.77837336 .00008438 00000-0 77001-4 0 08 2 24680 97.8767 9.3357 0556007 67.9506 297.9786 14.73771726 02 Arc 2005 Oct 28.86 - Nov 03.84, WRMS residuals = 0.040 deg USA 186's elements are based on many accurate points over a long arc, so they are very reliable: USA 186 15.0 3.0 0.0 5.3 v 263 X 1044 km 1 28888U 05042A 05307.80659240 .00012592 00000-0 13256-3 0 06 2 28888 97.8767 9.4719 0555520 135.1636 229.5877 14.71390417 04 Arc 2005 Oct 25.82 - Nov 03.87, WRMS residuals = 0.013 deg The observational arc of the rocket body is still fairly short, so I am not completely confident in the elements. In particular, I expected its argument of perigee to be closer to that of its payload, but let's see what additional tracking may reveal. USA 186 r 9.8 3.0 0.0 3.0 v 150 X 868 km 1 28889U 05042B 05307.85151874 .01086034 00000-0 35123-3 0 02 2 28889 97.7748 10.2671 0520843 124.5215 240.6342 15.17980449 07 Arc 2005 Oct 30.87 - Nov 03.91, WRMS residuals = 0.013 deg Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Nov 04 2005 - 19:43:30 EST