Further analysis shows that USA 161's (01044A) perigee crossed the equator during the 3 day period during which USA 129 manoeuvred. Historically, many manoeuvres have occurred when either the western or eastern plane KH's perigee was near the equator - which enables using a single impulse to change certain elements without affecting others, as I discussed several years ago: http://satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2000/0306.html The last time USA 161 manoeuvred, its mean motion went from about 14.834 rev/d to 14.82 rev/d. This time, its mean motion likely had not quite reached 14.83 rev/d, but would have been close, so a manoeuvre seems possible. If its mean motion changed to 14.82 rev/d, then USA 129's likely would have changed to about 14.80, which would have been covered in the search advice that I provided. However, if USA 161 manoeuvred a bit higher, to a mean motion of 14.8 rev/d, then USA 129 probably manoeuvred to about 14.78 rev/d, resulting in the following search elements: Earliest arrival 1 70005U 03355.77065973 .00025000 00000-0 26303-3 0 09 2 70005 97.7982 55.4465 0523500 110.5013 0.0000 14.78000000 01 Latest arrival 1 70002U 03352.53751158 .00025000 00000-0 26303-3 0 04 2 70002 97.7982 52.2685 0523500 121.1405 0.0000 14.78000000 00 The 70002 elset would have resulted in a pass about 6 min later than Tony's extended search of Dec 24. I believe it worth considering these, as well as the 70001 and 70004 search elsets. Merry Christmas! Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Dec 25 2003 - 04:12:14 EST