Re: VITASAT-1r/FAISAT-2v Launch Date/Time Set

Bjoern Gimle (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Sat, 12 Apr 1997 22:24:22 +0200

Eric Rosenberg Washington, DC wd3q@amsat.org
("Eric Rosenberg" <erosenberg@orbcomm.net>) wrote: 

>Learned through email this morning that the launch is scheduled 
>for 5:00 PM Moscow time on April 17. ...
>The launch vehicle is a Cosmos-3M from Plesetsk.
>The flight profile is similar to the FAISAT-1/Astrid launch of 
>January 1995. (See Sven Grahn's paper in the 9th Annual Small Satellite 
>Conference for details)
>
I don't have that paper, nor the launch time of FaiSat-1, and I'm not
sure if Moscow time means UTC+3 or +4 for Daylight Saving?

But working back on some 1995-002 elsets, I get launch time about
03:48 UTC on Jan.24.
Assuming 5 pm Moscow time is 365+366+83 d, 10 h, 12 m after FaiSat-1,
this would be an approximate elset:

FaiSat-2, 365+366+83 d, 10 h, 12 m after FaiSat-1
1 30097U 97999C   97108.52222222  .00000024  00000-0  10220-4 0   138
2 30097  82.9237  84.7634 0036116 287.6960  72.0253 13.71506540   112
 
Visibility appears reasonably good in the morning southbound passes
for northern latitudes, and even better closer to the equator, and
below latitude 20S.

If launch is UTC 13:00, this elset would be:

FaiSat-2, 365+366+83 d, 9 h, 12 m after FaiSat-1
1 30197U 97999C   97108.40055555  .00000024  00000-0  10220-4 0   139
2 30197  82.9237  69.7223 0036116 287.6960  72.0253 13.71506540   110



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