Observing TDRS maneuvers

Lynn + Steve Walter / LAST Acre (walterlc@huntel.com)
Mon, 24 Jun 1996 19:20:03 -0600

Hello SeaSatl world ...

The NASA TDRS-6 satellite will be having long inclination reduction
maneuvers over the next 2 weeks.  It is currently being maintained in a
'box' at 47-degrees West longitude +/- either 0.1 or 0.5 degrees, depending
upon who you ask and at what time you ask.  Its inclination has grown to
about 2.5 to 3-degrees, and the goal is to begin maintaining the bird in a
geosynchronous box centered at 47-degrees West with a maximum +/- 0.1
degrees about this point in both longitude and inclination.  One pair of
North/South inclination-reduction maneuvers has been successfully completed
this past weekend; 3 more pairs are tentatively planned.

The next pair of maneuvers will occur between 1996/DOY #178/26 June between
00:10-02:20 GMT and 12:10-14:20 GMT -- tomorrow night and the next morning.
Each maneuver will require continuous thruster firings on the order of 2
hours duration.

I have long wondered about the visibility of these maneuvers.  Is there
anyone out there who has the time and desire to look in the right direction
at the right time and convince themselves it can be seen?

I'd be very interested in any and all responses.

Up-to-date, relatively accurate orbital elements should be available from
the GSFC WWW pages you all frequent.

Thanx,

Steve Walter







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|              Steve + Lynn Walter
|                 The LAST Acre
|           190 Horseshoe Circle East
|       Las Cruces, New Mexico  88005-5572
|
|       [~ 107 deg 03 min West  Longitude
|        x +32 deg 23 min North  Latitude]
|
| [Email Addresses]  walterlc@huntel.com
|                or  swalter@tdrss.wsc.nasa.gov
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