Bjoern Gimle wrote: > USA 129 fix 978 x 288 > 1 24680U 96072A 00251.77660427 .00033500 00000-0 47323-3 0 18 > 2 24680 97.8580 313.1267 0492510 72.3635 293.0722 14.78866062 158 > > may be a reasonable orbit, based on the assumption that it manoeuvred > on the orbit just before Russell's observation on Sep.7 (about 18:56). > This kind of pass, near California southbound, has been used many > times before, and the 0.02 MM decrease is almost standard too. If it had manoeuvred then, I would have expected it to be detectably late at the time of Russell's obs of 07 Sep, say 7 to 8 s, but it was essentially on-time relative the previous day's orbit. I have analyzed the circumstances of a similar small maneouvre by 96072A on 1999 Jun 17 at 23:48 UTC, and found that it occurred at perigee, northbound, over 79.9 N, 81.8 W. The track did not go near California. I used these pre and post-manoeuvre elements, by Mike McCants and Rainer Kracht, respectively: 1 24680U 96072A 99166.88328653 .00028000 00000-0 36155-3 0 04 2 24680 97.9090 229.3046 0487003 95.1966 264.8033 14.82234264 02 1 24680U 96072A 99184.92478130 .00026053 00000-0 34396-3 0 06 2 24680 97.8429 247.0924 0490304 35.9960 327.3915 14.81109513 04 Note that the inclination did not change, contrary to the elements. Off hand I don't recall any similar manoeuvres. I probably won't have time to do any more analysis until late tonight. 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 : Sat Sep 09 2000 - 11:43:27 PDT