On Tue, 4 Feb 2003 08:34:25 -0500 (EST), you (jcm@head-cfa.cfa.harvard.edu) wrote: > As for on-orbit/in-orbit, "on orbit" was used a lot by NASA starting in the 1980s >and my sense of the usage in practice (and it is used, so is de facto correct now) is that >'on orbit' means usually 'doing stuff while in orbit', especially according to plan. >Saying 'Discovery is in orbit' and "Discovery is on orbit (or on-orbit)" are both >correct, but the former has a slightly more passive nuance. One would not normally >say that a piece of debris was on orbit. That's my sense, I may be wrong. I guess part of the confusion is the human tendency to relate terms such as "on orbit"/"in orbit" to a location, similar to "in space". But actually, being in/on orbit doesn't refer to a location, but to a state or condition. CU! Markus ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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