Globalstar/Delta, 10 Jun 99, 13:48 UT 1 99999P 99 0xx A 99161.62291667 .00000500 00000-0 00000-0 0 17 2 99999 51.9950 8.5530 0003080 145.3550 122.9670 12.74000000 13 Note the "P" which indicates a Prelaunch Elset...in this case based upon ILAM data from this site: http://www.isi-consulting.com/tech.html The satellite will appear about 75 seconds LATE using this elset so allow about 3 minutes EARLY and 4 minutes LATE (3 minute launch window). To ensure I am not getting confused here, I show the satellite at the U1/U2 point at about 14:55:45 UT when it really should not be there until 14:57 UT. The second stage circularization burn will occur from 3712-3739 seconds AFTER liftoff. This may be visible from southern Australia. The satellite is in darkness at the time. Subsequent burns occur over North America at daytime so they will not be visible. Two satellites separate at 1h 09m after launch; the other two at 1h 13m 02s. See the ISI site for more details. Also see this site for schematics of the launch sequence: http://www.flatoday.com:80/space/explore/uselv/delta/d270/index.htm The following site is great to get up to the minute info on launch status: http://www.flatoday.com/space/today/index.htm If this slips to Friday, I will not be available to update the elset. However, all that should be necessary is to adjust the time for a given azimuth/elevation unless the launch profile changes. Most likely, events will occur about 16 minutes earlier. A note to the discussion about the 8th character. Note that I use ILAM data to generate prelaunch elsets and sometimes previous launches (eg Iridium). Some folks use more advanced techniques to generate prelaunch elsets. So conceivably you could have as many as three prelaunch designators, or two, or just one to make it simpler. Ron Lee