Boeing's CST-100 Starliner is slated for launch from SLC-41 in Florida on 20 Dec at 11:36 UT, on its (uncrewed) maiden flight to the ISS. According to the Press-kit and the Starliner Notebook, the Atlas V and Centaur upper stage will first put the Starliner in a 51.61 degree inclined (initially) suborbital orbit of 72.8 x 181.5 km, with the Starliner separating from the Centaur 15 minutes after launch. Some 31 minutes after launch, while over Arabia, the Starliner then makes a burn that raises perigee and inserts it in orbit properly. The following TLE should be valid between approx. 11:50 UT and 12:05 UT: STARLINER 1 70000U 19999A 19354.48333333 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 09 2 70000 051.6100 158.3346 0083547 242.1164 130.7400 16.54638603 06 This TLE will probably also be close for the Centaur upper stage up to reentry after ~0.5 revolutions The following Starliner TLE should be valid for the second part of the first revolution. The exact apogee and perigee of this part of the first revolution are not known to me, so I have assumed that the orbit insertion burn is merely a circularization burn bringing the orbit at ~181 km altitude and adjusting the orbital inclination to the ~51.64 degrees of the ISS: STARLINER 1 70001U 19999A 19354.50486111 0.00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 05 2 70001 051.6400 158.2500 0000762 139.2994 359.9319 16.34116947 00 Note that these orbit estimates (especially the second one) are very approximate only. Passes based on these TLE's can be off by several minutes in time and several degrees in position. The US Midwest might have a visible morning twilight pass near the end of the first revolution. The Centaur upper stage reenters over the southern Indian Ocean south of Australia about 58 minutes (~0.5 revolution) after launch, at about 12:33 UT. Blowdown is over southeast Europe and the Middle East (but in daylight). - Marco ----- Dr Marco Langbroek - SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands. e-mail: sattrackcam_at_langbroek.org Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com Twitter: _at_Marco_Langbroek ----- _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Tue Dec 17 2019 - 18:33:52 UTC
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