Updated X-37B OTV 4 elements

From: Ted Molczan via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 06:42:05 -0400
The following elements are based on observations by Alberto Rango, Greg Roberts and Brad Young.

OTV 4                                                    349 X 357 km
1 40651U 15025A   15298.70871581  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    04
2 40651  38.0204  17.9956 0006460 207.4337 152.6107 15.73054533    02
Arc 20151025.15-1025.76 WRMS resid 0.024 totl 0.011 xtrk

I set the rate of decay to zero because the object is known to maintain a nearly constant mean motion by means of
frequent small orbital manoeuvres. The above mean motion probably is not correct for long-term prediction. The correct
value will become evident with additional tracking.

I estimate that the manoeuvre to raise the orbital altitude 34 km occurred on 2015 Aug 22 near 12:00 UTC. That is when
the pre and post-manoeuvre orbits would have been co-planar, taking into account their different rates of precession of
the RAAN (right-ascension of the ascending node).

Ted Molczan


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Received on Mon Oct 26 2015 - 05:42:48 UTC

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