ISS Keplerian elements direct from NASA
A few months ago I was trying to help a new SatPC32 user track the ISS. His prediction was way off because of a recent boost in the ISS orbit. He was getting bad predictions using elements from AMSAT and Spacetrack. I figured that NASA must surely be the most authoritative source of the ISS orbit. I stumbled onto a NASA web page that supplies details of each boost and DAILY predicted ISS 2-line elements after the boost.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/...
The date is in epoch format, so you have to convert it to today's calendar date. Today is 2014 day 239, which in epoch format is described at 14239. Here's a link to an epoch converter:
http://www.epochconverter.com/epoch/daynumbers.php
It's kind of a nuisance to convert the date and manually copy today's predicted 2-line elements into your Keps file before attempting to hear the ISS. But it works!
Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik
Thanks for the note, Wayne. I don't have it fully automated yet, but I have begun updating the amsat.org site with elements from that URL when ISS maneuvers are scheduled (forecast times of boosts are also on the page you mentioned). For example it got a bit of a nudge early yesterday morning, and I updated the site while sipping my morning coffee.
FWIW have been using http://www.epochconverter.com/epoch/daynumbers.php to help me convert the day of year to calendar dates.
-Joe KM1P
participants (2)
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Joe Fitzgerald
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Wayne Estes