Re: ISS's Varying Orbit

From: Bill T Bard (wtba@eci.esys.com)
Date: Mon Dec 04 2000 - 05:34:36 PST

Next message: Bill T Bard: "Re: ISS solar cells"

Previous message: Jeff Hunt: "Re: ISS's Varying Orbitt"
Maybe in reply to: Garvey J. Dyer: "ISS's Varying Orbit"
Next in thread: Tony Beresford: "Re: ISS's Varying Orbit"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

>Could someone please tell me why ISS's orbit changes from time to
>time??  From my location it is normally visible in the early morning,
>but during Shuttle missions it becomes visible in the evening.  Did
>anyone notice that, or did I just discover something big???  :-)

This is basically because the plane of the ISS's orbit "moves" because the
earth is not a perfect sphere. Some satellites, like low orbit weather
satellites, pick their orbits so they pass by at about the same time each
day. They do this by being in a near polar orbit.

Bill Bard


-----------------------------------------------------------------
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

Next message: Bill T Bard: "Re: ISS solar cells"
Previous message: Jeff Hunt: "Re: ISS's Varying Orbitt"
Maybe in reply to: Garvey J. Dyer: "ISS's Varying Orbit"
Next in thread: Tony Beresford: "Re: ISS's Varying Orbit"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 04 2000 - 05:34:39 PST