Alberto Rango observed ORS 1 overnight. Below is a fit based on the mean mean-motion that I derived recently, which is intended to reflect the frequent manoeuvres that maintain the orbit against drag. If my mean mean-motion is accurate, the object can be expected to be well within about +/- 1 min of the predicted time, even after several weeks without observations. ORS 1 417 X 419 km 1 37728U 11029A 12260.11336101 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 00 2 37728 40.0000 290.4467 0002000 26.4967 333.5945 15.50381280 06 Marco Langbroek's observation of USA 237 overnight indicates that it may finally have reached its initial operational location. It was near 47.8 E. Below are approximate elements. USA 237 35624 X 35952 km 1 38528U 12034A 12259.71058215 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 07 2 38528 3.4072 299.2146 0038852 311.9498 47.4799 1.00270183 00 Bram Dorreman, Kevin Fetter, Marco Langbroek, Alberto Rango and Scott Tilley have reported new observations of objects from the NROL-36 NOSS launch. I reduced the following data from Kevin's video: 79603 12 048P 1775 G 20120916081231486 36 25 0522577-083104 37 I+080 05 38758 12 048A 1775 G 20120916081242130 36 25 0522539-082862 37 S+070 05 NOSS 3-6 (A) 1008 X 1205 km 1 38758U 12048A 12260.33412578 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 03 2 38758 63.4557 35.5648 0131425 177.3073 182.8689 13.40430902 06 Arc 20120914.4-0916.34 WRMS resid 0.025 totl 0.011 xtrk NOSS 3-6 (P) 1012 X 1201 km 1 79603U 12048P 12260.33400903 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 06 2 79603 63.4309 35.5367 0125986 180.3199 179.7766 13.40498871 01 Arc 20120915.52-0916.34 WRMS resid 0.006 totl 0.004 xtrk The unusually high decay term of the Centaur is confirmed, which together with the fairly rapid rotation reported by Bram and Marco points to outgassing of propellants as the probable cause. The second elset below, based on the most recent 24 h of observations, indicates that the decay term was already rapidly decreasing, as expected. NOSS 3-6 r 459 X 774 km 1 38770U 12048N 12260.17472514 .00067512 00000-0 51642-2 0 06 2 38770 64.6863 33.6686 0225138 294.1640 63.6076 14.83680023 02 Arc 20120914.36-0916.19 WRMS resid 0.040 totl 0.019 xtrk NOSS 3-6 r 459 X 774 km 1 38770U 12048N 12260.51175411 .00008729 00000-0 66757-3 0 09 2 38770 64.6807 32.6175 0225427 294.2763 63.4944 14.83645033 04 Arc 20120915.51-0916.52 WRMS resid 0.021 totl 0.012 xtrk Ted Molczan _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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