The TLE set for Sputnik-1 below works in STS+ when the simulated date is set to 5 October 1957.
Please note the spacing is critical (takes me back to the days of FORTRAN!!).
Thanks to John G7HIA for help and to Sil and Farrell for encouragement.
For the record,, I varied the keps from those given in Sil's reference on the amsat-bb (they are the best I have seen):
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2007/0239.html
I then:
a) Accept the coefficient of drag taken from Gerhard HOLTKAMP's observations
b) accept his model of Epoch time, Mean motion and RAAN (they all fit together - so I have to accept his epoch time as well)
c) Change to the RAE observed values of eccentricity, argument of perigee and inclination, and calculate mean motion by dividing the sidereal day in minutes (1436 divided by by the RAE observation of the period)
d) calculate the checksum accordingly (John sent me in the right direction here!)
My prediction programme STS+, which runs under good old DOS, allows me to enter a Simulated Time. I MUST set it to 5 October 1957 before running the prediction or map features.
Please note I have written <CR> where there must be a line break, you should not include the characters "<CR>" when you prepare the text file for your program. I can't speak for other prediction progarms, just good ol' STS+
SPUTNIK 1<CR> 1 00002U 57001B 57277.80972234 .00352343 00000-0 15670-2 0 0<CR> 2 00002 65.1000 339.9400 0520000 058.0000 334.6900 14.92723492 6<CR>
This is for the satellite not the rocket.
Many thanks to all for help and encouragement. Let's see how she works!
73 de andy G0SFJ
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