Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!kenny
From: kenny@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Long Duration Exposure Facility
Message-ID: <22000014@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 14 Feb 89 17:47:00 GMT
References: <872@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Lines: 81
Nf-ID: #R:blake.acs.washington.edu:872:m.cs.uiuc.edu:22000014:000:2905
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!kenny    Feb 14 11:47:00 1989


>A few months back, I heard that the LDEF (Long Duration Exposure
>Facility) was going to re-enter the atmosphere due to a rapidly 
>decaying orbit.

>Has this taken place yet?

No.  LDEF retrieval is manifested for STS-32 this November.

STS-32 vital data:
launch: 89-11-13
vehicle: Columbia
inclination: 28.5 degrees
alt: 190 nautical miles 
duration: 5 days [Plans to extend to 10]
primary mission: SYNCOM IV-05 communications satellite deployment
primary mission: LDEF-1 revisit
secondary mission: IMAX filming, flight 02
Crew:	Capt. Daniel Brandenstein, USN, commander
	Lt. Cmdr. James Wetherbee, USN, pilot
	Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, mission specialist
	Mr. David Low, mission specialist
	Ms. Marsha Ivins, mission specialist

Brandenstein has previously flown as pilot of STS-8 (8/30/83), and as
commander os STS-18 (51-G) (6/17/85).  Dunbar has been to space aboard
STS-22 (10/30/85).  The three remaining crew members are making their
first spaceflights.

Orbital elements and motion of the LDEF are (as of 5 February, 3 AM
EST) follow.  Note that in the nine months between now and its
retrieval, LDEF's orbit will have decayed from its current altitude of
236 nautical miles to 190.

Two-line elements for LDEF       
1 14898U          89 36.36470616 0.00022738           50860-3 0  7451
2 14898  28.5100  19.2599 0002164 203.0911 157.0735 15.42035305271020

Object: LDEF       
NORAD catalog number: 14898
Element set: 745
Epoch revolution: 27102
Epoch time: 89036.36470616 (Sun Feb  5 08:45:10 UTC)
Inclination: 28.5100 degrees
RA of node: 19.2599 degrees
Eccentricity: 0.0002164
Argument of periapsis: 203.0911 degrees
Mean anomaly: 157.0735 degrees
Mean motion: 15.42035305 revs / day
Mean motion acceleration: 0.00022738 * 2 revs / day**2
B* drag term: 5.0860e-04

Derived figures:
Semimajor axis: 6816.07 km.
Perifocal radius: 6814.59 km.
Apogee height: 439.395 km.
Perigee height: 436.445 km.
Mean longitude at the epoch: 0.3390 degrees.
Magnitudes of short-period perturbations of the second harmonic:
	Radius vector magnitude: +/-0.37 km.
	True anomaly: +/-0.0299 degrees.
	RA of node: +/-0.0358 degrees.
	Inclination: +/-0.0171 degrees.
Secular perturbations of the second harmonic:
	Argument of perigee: 11.2915 degrees/day
	RA of node: -6.9365 degrees/day
	Mean anomaly: included in published mean motion.
Long-period perturbation of the third harmonic: X=-1.031e-03, Y=-5.237e-04


Source: NASA Goddard via TS Kelso's `Celestial RCP/M'

NOTE: Apogee and perigee heights are referred to a mean equatorial radius
      of 6378.145 km, and not to the local radius of the geoid.
      All derived quantities are calculated using the NORAD SGP model of
      Hilton and Kuhlman.

Kevin Kenny			   UUCP: {uunet,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!kenny
Illini Space Development Society   ARPA Internet or CSNet: kenny@CS.UIUC.EDU
P.O. Box 2255, Station A
Champaign, Illinois, 61820	   Voice: (217) 333-5821