George, you are in luck. I came up with a rough preliminary elset that suggests (IF correct), that it goes almost overhead for you just after launch (around 18:05 UT). Here is the elset: STS-99 1 99999U 00-00X A 00031.76388888 .00006000 00000-0 00000-0 0 16 2 99999 57.0000 296.0000 0005000 000.0000 155.0000 16.19000000 10 It is very preliminary since I had no data to work with other than the launch time, inclination and reported altitude of 126 nm. There is an error since I set it to 120 nm. But for the first rev, it is close enough. If you do not have a prediction program, I can generate a Skymap plot in the form of a JPG if you are interested (email me privately). Once better orbital data is provided, I can develop a better elset to correct the altitude error and anything else I may not now be aware of. Of course if someone else has the data and wishes to supply a prelaunch elset, I would not be offended. One side note, it would be interesting to see if UK region observers might see an OMS burn. Ron Lee >I understand that this mission is related to radar mapping of the >earths geography-I assume this means that the majority of the >planets surface will be covered-on this basis does that mean the >shuttle will have a high inclination orbit, and if so what are the >chances of observation from the UK-I would imagine that any (even >notional) predictions are difficult until after the time of launch with >observers in the USA being the first to analyse orbital data? >George Amos-station 2453 350 feet above sea level >53 degrees 23 minutes 49 seconds North >2 degrees 4 minutes 57 seconds West ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jan 15 2000 - 09:50:50 PST