New Zuma orbit estimates

From: Marco Langbroek via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2018 01:02:23 +0100
Hi all,

The sightings of the Falcon 9 upper stage from the Zuma launch venting fuel over
East Africa some 2h 15m after launch, suggests that Zuma might be in a higher
orbit than in my pre-launch estimate. Rather than ~400 km it might be ~900-1000 km.

These are two *very preliminary* new elset estimates. I will see whether further
analysis of the images might lead me to further revise the orbit estimate.

Zuma                                                     895 x 905 km
1 70000U 18999A   18008.04166667  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    09
2 70000 050.0006 016.6385 0006870 048.9951 328.2490 13.98210309    00

Zuma                                                    995 x 1005 km
1 70001U 18999A   18008.04166667  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    00
2 70001 050.0003 016.6517 0006777 048.9870 328.8923 13.69880760    00

If correct, this means Zuma might become observable in the N hemisphere about a
week from now.

I advise to target both the previous 400 km and 900-1000 km orbit estimates.
At least, we have a reasonable idea of the orbital plane the spacecraft is in.
Allow for spacious time around the nominal pass times, and spacious cross-track
error.

- Marco


-----
Dr Marco Langbroek  -  SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands.
e-mail: sattrackcam_at_langbroek.org

Cospar 4353 (Leiden):     52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WGS84), +0 m ASL
Cospar 4355 (Cronesteyn): 52.13878 N, 4.49937 E (WGS84), -2 m ASL
Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com
Twitter: _at_Marco_Langbroek
-----
_______________________________________________
Seesat-l mailing list
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
Received on Mon Jan 08 2018 - 18:03:13 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Jan 09 2018 - 00:03:13 UTC