I based my preliminary orbital elements on a report of an 8 AM (0 h UTC) launch time; however, there is discussion on FPSPACE and a report at spacedaily.com pointing to launch at 9 AM (01 h UTC) and a 21 h mission duration: http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/fpspace/2003-October/009527.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-03zh.html The one hour later launch would result in the following search elements: Elliptical Parking Orbit until 2003 Oct 15 at 07:50 UTC Shenzhou 5 7.8 2.5 0.0 5.4 d 1 70000U 03288.67587361 .00788058 82648-5 58603-3 0 31 2 70000 42.4069 26.2082 0099929 134.5463 16.8336 16.04205144 103 My guess is that the spacecraft will trail a short distance behind the rocket during this period. Circularized Orbit after 2003 Oct 15 at 07:50 UTC The spacecraft will circularize its orbit as it passes through apogee for the 5th time, about 7 h after launch, whereupon it will be in this orbit: Shenzhou 5 7.8 2.5 0.0 5.4 d 1 70001U 03288.67700930 .00036000 00000-0 19749-3 0 17 2 70001 42.4080 26.2791 0004797 163.8920 321.6647 15.78791273 101 The visibility latitudes would be a bit wider than those of the 0 h UTC launch, but more of a pass would be in eclipse. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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