I have updated the elements using recent observations by Tony Beresford, David Brierley and Peter Wakelin. NOSS 3-4 (A) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9 v 1 31701U 07027A 08048.24657984 .00000012 00000-0 20000-4 0 05 2 31701 63.4064 124.7179 0127516 147.4510 213.4458 13.41267325 03 Arc 2008 Feb 13.16 - 17.27, WRMS residuals = 0.012 deg NOSS 3-4 (C) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9 v 1 31708U 07027C 08048.24670245 .00000012 00000-0 20000-4 0 07 2 31708 63.4052 124.9222 0126257 146.8812 214.0199 13.41291491 07 Arc 2008 Feb 16.22 - 17.27, WRMS residuals = 0.017 deg The arc is short; therefore, the elements may still be a bit rough, despite the low residuals. At the epoch, C trailed A by 10.5 s at the ascending node, and was closing at the rate of about 0.116 s/rev; therefore, the observed nominal separation for 3rd generation NOSS, about 8 s, should be achieved within roughly 22.4 revs, late on day 08049 = February 18 UTC. Eventually, the pair will manoeuvre to synchronize their mean motion to that of the other operational NOSS groups, currently about 13.40515 rev/d. The NOSS 3-4 pair have nearly completed their manoeuvres to compensate for the under-burn of the Centaur upper stage that inserted them into too low an orbit, during launch on 2007 June 15 UTC. Over the past 7 months, both spacecraft have made in excess of 50 corrective manoeuvres. Here is a plot of their manoeuvre history, expressed as the percentage of completion of the approximate required altitude-raising: http://www.satobs.org/seesat_ref/NOSS_3-4/NOSS_3-4_altitude_progress_3.pdf Additional information on the NOSS satellites is available here: http://www.satobs.org/noss.html Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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