Re: Resurs O1 delayed one day
VideoCosmos (icosmos@dol.ru)
Tue, 23 Jun 1998 18:10:18 +0400 (MSD)
Hi,
At 05:53 23.06.1998 -0600, Ron Lee wrote on the Zenit-2/Resurs O1
launch:
>This launch will carry six payloads. Does anyone have prelaunch
>orbital information/elset?
>
>Ron Lee
I doubt if elsets exist but one can try to generate these assuming
launch pad at 46N, 68E, launch azimuth of 192 deg (southern
path - BTW, it overflies the city of Baikonur a minute after liftoff).
The final orbit of 98.5 deg, 835 km is to be achieved half-orbit
after launch. Launch time is June 24, 05:48 UTC.
I've got some doubts on orbital height: previous launches went to
98 deg, 650 km. But the 835 km figure is what I was told.
On Dec 28, 1995 at 06:45 UTC, Indian IRS-1C was launched from
Baikonur into similar, slightly lower orbit. The current elset is
IRS-1C 3.0 2.0 2.0 6.3 d
1 23751U 95072A 98169.24136971 -.00000044 00000-0 00000+0 0 3359
2 23751 98.6880 243.7340 0000827 87.6665 272.4616 14.21636554128306
IRS-1C used another vehicle, Molniya-M, but if you take one of the
first elsets for IRS and adapts it for the date and time of Resurs O1 #4,
you can probably come to a predictive elset, at least for the first orbit. Orbit 1
goes, I believe, over Madagascar, the Antarctic Peninsula, the Pacific,
east of Hawaii to the western tip of Alaska/Aleutian Islands. It probably
can be seen from California as well but I haven't made any computations
on shadow.
The five payloads other than Resurs O1 #4 are minor ones but
probably can be seen. Happy observing!
Igor