Please help us Track the FASTRAC satellites once they are launched Nov. 19th!!
Does Celestrak.com have these in their catalog yet. I found one named FAST but the elements did not seem to match up. Thanks Joe KI4TZ
Hi Joe,
The keps generally don't get released until the satellite is in orbit and has been radar located by the ground satellite trackers :)
Thanks Chris ProjectOSCAR UK
Www.Projectoscar.co.uk
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On 17 Nov 2010, at 11:57, joe barkley [email protected] wrote:
Does Celestrak.com have these in their catalog yet. I found one named FAST but the elements did not seem to match up. Thanks Joe KI4TZ _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
The keps generally don't get released until the satellite is in orbit and has been radar located by the ground satellite trackers :)
Does Celestrak have these in their catalog yet.
PCSAT was also launched out of Kodiak back in 2001 into a 61 degree orbit. Since the inclination of an orbit is optimally defined by the launch location, then, the FASTRACK orbit will possibly be similar to PCSAT's as a first approximation.
So if you just want to see what the orbit is like, then look at PCSAT (NO44).
Bob, WB4APR
Does Celestrak have [FASTRAC] in their catalog yet?
PCSAT was also launched out of Kodiak back in 2001 into a 61 degree orbit....
We just played with the elements for PCSAT and changed the inclination to 72 degrees and mean motion until we got 650km and then adjusted RAAN until we got the orbit over Kodiak, and then changed the EPOC time until we got the satellite over Kodiak at launch time.
Here are the elements we ended up with: Epoc 11/19/2010 04:30 UTC MA 140 MM 14.7 Inc 72 E .0018 AP 16.08 RAAN 130
Based on a launch at 01:24 UTC on the 20th, the first pass in range of Hawaii and California, will be in minutes and probably the satellite will not have separated or be activated. But a half orbit later, the first ground stations will be Eastern Europe. Then a descending pass over Hawaii at T + 100 minutes and then Central Europe about 3 hours after launch followed by Japan and New Zealand. The next pass is over Europe Japan and NZ again, Not until almost 9 hours later will we see it on the east coast.
All of these first 3 passes in the Northern Hemisphere begin about 4 AM through 7:30 AM local time. New Zealand passes are in the Afternoon.
All of the above can be TOTALLY Wrong and groundless if our assumptions are wrong.
Bob, WB4APR
participants (3)
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Chris Bloy -
joe barkley -
Robert Bruninga