kenny@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu (06/14/88)
I recommend against using Goddard's latest set of Mir elements (epoch date 88158.85227235) -- they give a poorer fit than the set that they gave for Progress 36 late last week. Using the P36 elements, I observed Mir tonight over Champaign, IL; it appeared roughly seven seconds early, for those that are into tweaking the B* term. NOTE: P36 has been de-orbited; these elements date from a point at which it was still docked to the Mir/Kvant complex. For those that missed them the first time, the P36 element set I used was: Satellite: Progress 36 Catalog id 19117 Element set 26 Epoch: 88156.88193794 Inclination: 51.6138 degrees RA of node: 130.3633 degrees Eccentricity: 0.0004000 Argument of perigee: 18.9284 degrees Mean anomaly: 341.1013 degrees Mean motion: 15.72231650 revs/day Mean motion acceleration: 0.00015998 * 2 revs/day/day Epoch Revolution: 361 Semimajor axis: 6730.62 km Apogee height*: 355.15 km Perigee height*: 349.76 km Source: NASA Goddard via T.S.Kelso's `Celestial RCP/M' * Apogee and perigee altitudes are referred to the mean equatorial radius of the Earth (6378.15 km), and not to the local radius of the geoid. They are only approximate, and should not be used for orbit prediction.