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AMSAT-DL and AMSAT-NA forwarded ANS the following AO-40 information:
NORAD has found AO-40 to be in one piece.
The radar cross section was as expected with no other pieces found nearby. This should end speculation of an explosion as NORAD found only one object with a radar cross section that was consistent with a satellite the size of AO-40.
The command station team is continuing recovery operations.
AMSAT-NA's N2WWD provided ANS the following preliminary Keplerian elements based on a single radar pass. More accurate orbital elements should follow from NORAD in the near future -- following a second radar pass that should provide time and geometric distribution of the tracking data.
AO-40 1 26609U 00072B 00352.42798611 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 115 2 26609 6.3033 237.3129 8126708 194.7923 102.4478 1.27093349 581
Satellite: AO-40 Catalog number: 26609 Epoch time: 00352.42798611 Element set: 11 Inclination: 6.3033 deg RA of node: 237.3129 deg Eccentricity: 0.8126708 Arg of perigee: 194.7923 deg Mean anomaly: 102.4478 deg Mean motion: 1.27093349 rev/day Decay rate: 0.00000e+00 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 58 Checksum: 266
Stay tuned to ANS for additional bulletins from AMSAT, the official source for information on AMSAT OSCAR-40.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-DL for this information]
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to the ANS Editors at ans-editor@amsat.org, or to ANS Editor Dan James, NN0DJ, at nn0dj@amsat.org.
This AMSAT News Service special bulletin was edited by AMSAT News Service editor Dan James, NN0DJ.
