TJM Lacrosse 5 obs and elements, 2005 May 03 UTC

From: Ted Molczan (molczan@rogers.com)
Date: Tue May 03 2005 - 08:41:42 EDT

  • Next message: Fco. Javier Iruretagoyena: "Lacrosse 5"

    The payload still has not circularised its orbit. Its apogee has just about
    precessed out of range of Diego Garcia, so I now doubt that the manoeuvre will
    occur in that area.
    
    Lacrosses 2, 3 and 4 circularized their orbits about 48 h after launch, while
    within range of Diego Garcia. Lacrosse 1 was deployed by a shuttle into a 450 km
    circular orbit; 7 days later, it manoeuvred to its final orbit. So my guess is
    that Lacrosse 5 will manoeuvre in the next few days.
    
    Lacrosse 5 has been exhibiting an unusually high rate of orbital decay,
    considering the altitude of its orbit. I produced elements for two arcs, which
    suggest that the rate of decay has declined somewhat over the past couple of
    days. Could it have made a small manoeuvre lower that looks like decay?
    
    Lacrosse 5       0.0  0.0  0.0  3.4 v
    1 28646U 05016A   05123.31646144  .00006596  00000-0  49713-3 0    04
    2 28646  57.0053 120.1365 0167432  20.4841 340.2799 14.91496301    00
    Arc 2005 May 01.86 - 03.34, WRMS residuals = 0.030 deg
    
    1 28646U 05016A   05123.31645974  .00011663  00000-0  87885-3 0    07
    2 28646  57.0042 120.1361 0167440  20.3093 340.4493 14.91503681    04
    Arc 2005 Apr 30.04 - May 03.34, WRMS residuals = 0.033 deg
    
    Lacrosse 5 r     9.8  3.0  0.0  4.8 v
    1 28647U 05016B   05122.84606040  .00000997  00000-0  74925-4 0    06
    2 28647  57.0009 121.9902 0162928  19.4104 341.3035 14.92109594    04
    Arc 2005 Apr 30.04 - May 02.86, WRMS residuals = 0.031 deg
    
    28646 05 016A   2701 G 20050503080920160 17 25 1808951+200385 28 S
    28646 05 016A   2701 G 20050503080957520 17 25 1858426+061477 96 S
    28646 05 016A   2701 G 20050503081027770 17 25 1925570-020423 37 S
    28646 05 016A   2701 G 20050503081254160 17 25 2032868-221161 97 S
    
    IOD format: http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html
    
    Site 2701: 43.68764 N, 79.39243 W, 230 m
    
    Ted Molczan
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive:  
    http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 03 2005 - 08:46:39 EDT