NASA's Lunar Mission LADEE is due to launch Friday, Sept 6, 2013 at 23:27 EDT from Wallops Island, VA, USA. Google Earth KMZ file is available for plotting at: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moon/feature-display.cfm?ST_ID=2591 I still use Rob Matson's SKYMAP program to make trajectory plots. Some plots local to Wallops viewing sites are available on the above page. If anyone still uses SKYMAP .TRJ files, here is the data reduced from the .KMZ file put into SKYMAP .TRJ file format. Sec Lat Long Alt (km) After Launch LADEE.TRJ 0.0 37.831 -75.490 0.00 1.0 37.831 -75.490 0.008 5.0 37.831 -75.490 0.127 10 37.831 -75.488 0.601 15 37.831 -75.485 1.472 20 37.831 -75.477 2.767 30 37.829 -75.446 6.475 40 37.827 -75.395 11.485 50 37.824 -75.316 17.935 70 37.814 -75.091 33.418 90 37.797 -74.713 52.840 110 37.765 -74.105 72.633 145 37.678 -72.731 107.12 160 37.631 -72.087 120.66 185 37.532 -70.852 142.73 209 37.413 -69.434 161.43 444 35.061 -54.819 259.42 490 34.348 -51.969 264.90 528 33.624 -49.330 266.19 444 seconds past launch is the 4th stage ignition point - not visible from anywhere on the East Coast of the USA. After launch, several perigee passes during the Looping Phases of the Lunar Insertion orbits can be predicted using JPL-HORIZONS. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi (JPL-HORIZONS predictions were very good for the J002E3 Rocket Body - supposedly a Saturn V S-IVB stage - looping near the Moon is 2003.) http://www.flickr.com/photos/xb70man/1346052471/in/set-72157601920599385 In JPL-HORIZONS -- Make TARGET BODY = LADEE Spacecraft [-12] I recommend output RA and DEC as ASTROMETRIC to match your star charts, which correspond to TABLE SETTINGS of -- QUANTITIES=1,4,9,20,23,29; range units=KM; elevation cutoff=10 The spacecraft is quite small, but it is possible to see it during the upcoming perigee passes. Rick Baldridge Campbell, CA, USA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/private/seesat-l/attachments/20130905/f9f9b362/attachment.html _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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