Tim Luton, Mike McCants, Jim Nix, Brad Young, and I, contributed observations used to determine the following element set: OTV-1 405 X 418 km 1 36514U 10015A 10147.12961170 .00000469 00000-0 73607-5 0 06 2 36514 39.9921 146.5125 0009492 239.0914 120.8964 15.52672295 04 Arc 20100521.36-0527.14 WRMS resid 0.039 totl 0.013 xtrk Observations last night, revealed the object running more than 3 s late and somewhat off-track, relative the epoch 10143.4 elements, probably due to a small reboost manoeuvre to counteract drag. I am uncertain of the time of the manoeuvre, but it may have occurred between Greg Roberts' observation on May 20 UTC and Tim and my observations on May 21 UTC; therefore, the arc of the above analysis begins May 21. Reboost manoeuvres against drag were expected. Additional observation and analysis will reveal whether they are infrequent and relatively large, or frequent and small; if the latter, then we may be able to set the rate of decay to zero, and compute a long-term average mean-motion, which would simplify prediction over long periods. The object has entered evening visibility over northern latitudes; I hope to observe it tonight. Ted Molczan _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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