Re: Iridium 69/25 Flare -what determines satellite point

Tony Beresford (starman@camtech.net.au)
Mon, 14 Sep 1998 17:42:14 +0900

At 23:11 13/09/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I've begun to watch the iridium flares both -1's and -7's and 
>have this question,
>What is the antenna point angle the satellite uses? To sun, 
>to north and south, or in direction of travel, that
>makes the flare angles and times predictable?
Chris,
The one antenna is always in the same direction as the horizontal
component of the velocity vector. This means the satellite rotates
one per orbit. They must also slowly rotate the axis of rotation
to maintain the axis of rotation perpindicular to orbit plane
Tony Beresford