AEHF 3, the third Milstar replacement, is scheduled for launch from CCAFS, aboard an Atlas 5-531, on 2013 Sep 18, between 07:04 UTC and 09:04 UTC: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av041/status.html Here is the approximate MECO 2 (T+00:27:35) TLE, assuming launch at 07:04 UTC: AHEF 3 176 X 50084 km 1 75600U 13261.31359955 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 04 2 75600 20.7000 285.0000 7920000 180.0000 1.1497 1.55264620 04 Not long after spacecraft separation (T+00:50:58), the Centaur will perform a CCAM (collision and contamination avoidance manoeuvre) followed by blowdown of any remaining propellants, which should be complete by about 4400 s after separation, or about 09:08 UTC, which is the epoch of the search TLE: Centaur 88 X 50428 km 1 75601U 13261.38055557 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 03 2 75601 20.4000 286.4000 7956000 178.2500 37.9467 1.54321810 08 Based on what was learned in the aftermath of the aborted firing of AEHF 1's LAE (liquid apogee engine), three LAE firings are planned to be completed within 6 days of launch, which will raise the apogee to about 19,000 km, and reduce the inclination to about 6 deg. This will be followed by about 100 days of firing by the hall current thruster electric propulsion system, to reach a 4.8 deg inclined synchronous orbit. AEHF 3 is likely to be checked out near 120 W for several months, before being moved to its operational location. Ted Molczan _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Sep 17 2013 - 15:47:25 UTC