USA 259 elements from observations

From: Ted Molczan via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:45:57 -0500
The following elements are based on observations by Cees Bassa, Marco Langbroek and Peter Wakelin:

USA 259                                               2129 X 37738 km
1 40344U 14081A   14365.72708333  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    04
2 40344  62.8365 210.7919 6766663 266.7110 275.5583  2.03404371    08
Arc 20141224.72-1231.73 WRMS resid 0.003 totl 0.002 xtrk

The longitude of the ascending node has drifted into the range of most of the operational U.S. HEO SIGINT spacecraft. At
the present rate of drift, about 5.0 deg/d east, USA 259 will pass through that range late on Jan 3. If it is intended
to operate the s/c per the established pattern, we can expect one or more large manoeuvres over the next few days to
achieve a 2.006 rev/d orbit, which will establish a repeating ground-track.

Happy New Year!
Ted Molczan


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Received on Wed Dec 31 2014 - 19:46:32 UTC

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