Astra 2E: General Discussion (Post-Testing)

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That is good news....
 
Plenty of time for another swim.
 
TLE was updated, it's still on 43.5
 
Six weeks of testing, tomorrow .............
 
Eh? :confused
 
From what i can observe and recalling 2F there seems to have been much more intense testing of this satellite perhaps signalling a more active role ( given also 2F would appear generally underutilized ) ? Is that a fair assesment ?

It also seems there is more doubt now as to whether it is or isnt on the move (?). Is the so called TLE data relying on a " solid " source of information?.

One thing is for sure in my mind , the dice was rolled long ago for us fringe recievers except we have quite a wait to see what song the fat lady sings.. :)
 
According to the most recent TLE data, it is not budging. That, for the moment, is all we have to go on.
 
strs65 said:
They should be reliable, the source is the american defence agency NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command), and freely distributed in the internet.
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Yeah but this is also coming from the same agency that "tracks" Santa...
 
Well, you should know better about him, I guess! :D
 
So, in all this is n2yo unreliable, using a projected track, optimistic or delayed? Because at the moment 2E is being shown as climbing very slowly and drifting westwards (also very slowly). I don't know if this is indicative of it's normal elliptical orbit or movement. TBH, n2yo is the only site I use because it the easiest to interpret for me.
 
I wouldn't call n2yo, or other similar source, unreliable. But we should always bear in mind that all of them use projected tracking, based on TLE (if they are delayed or not, I don't know, depends on how often they use the most recent TLE). The point is we can't use those data as representative of what really happens in space right now, we don't have a live tracking system in our disposal...
 
sonnetpete said:
So, in all this is n2yo unreliable, using a projected track, optimistic or delayed? Because at the moment 2E is being shown as climbing very slowly and drifting westwards (also very slowly). I don't know if this is indicative of it's normal elliptical orbit or movement. TBH, n2yo is the only site I use because it the easiest to interpret for me.
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All satellites will drift, east/west, north/south and up/down ; they then burn fuel to stop them getting too far from their nominal position (in this case 43.5E for Astra 2E). So movement within a "3D box" is expected, hence why n2yo will sometimes show moving slowly. Once it is on it's way the speed will be much higher than 0.01 km/s. The TLE is released generally every 48 hours so will be the latest released information from NORAD. So it's unlikely that 2E was moving yesterday, but today is another story, but again we won't know until the next TLE is released. The Real Time Tracking websites all rely on the TLE (unless someone knows one that is really real time). n2yo is as good as any tracking site for accuracy. I seem to remember with 2F that the last TLE before it became stationary showed on n2yo that it had gone way past 28.2E when in fact it was already stationary.
 
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