STEX/ATEX elsets
Allen Thomson (thomsona@dzn.com)
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 16:04:35 -0600
Don Gardner communicated,
>I have just received confirmation from NRL that the elsets for the
STEX/ATEx
>should be avaliable through their website
>http://hyperspace.nrl.navy.mil/ATEX/ATEx.html
>in a few more days.
>It was also reported that so far everything looks good and the tether
>deployment should occur in the next 80-90 days.
Excellent news. It should be interesting to keep track of the STEX orbit as
it evolves
under the influence of the Hall Effect thrusters. As I understand it, ATEX
will separate
from STEX before the tether is unreeled, logically becoming the C object.
Presumably NRL will continue to post ATEX elsets after separation, but STEX
might or might not remain on the public record -- and, if not, could become
an object for informal orbit determination.