The Lageos measurement satellites

Two passive satellites are used for laser geodesy. These are 60 centimeter, 400 kilogram solid metal spheres covered with retroreflectors, used for precisely measuring the geometry of the Earth's surface and the Earth's gravitational field.

m288 is 1200km above LAGEOS 1. Server sky orbits should stay above LAGEOS!

These satellites are interesting because their orbits are very precisely defined, and we can use them to verify both our orbital math and learn about drag at those extreme altitudes.

LAGEOS 1

LAGEOS 2

- nyo

NORAD ID

8820

22195

Int'l Code

1976-039A

1992-070B

Perigee

5,845.9 km

5,622.3 km

Apogee

5,954.4 km

5,959.4 km

Inclination

109.8°

52.6°

Period

225.5 min

222.5 min

Semi major axis

12,271.2 km

12,161.9 km

Launch date

May 4, 1976

October 22, 1992

Source

United States

Italy

- JPL

mass

411kg

405kg

diameter

0.6m

0.6m

eccentricity

0.0045

- NSSDC

periapsis

5837.0 km

5900.0 km

apoapsis

5946.0 km

5900.0 km

period

225.41000366210938 min

225.0 min

Inclination

109.80000305175781°

54.0°

eccentricity

0.00443999981507659

0.009999999776482582

- springerlink

decay

1.1mm/day 1.5V

- Innovateus

mass

406.965

405.38

spin

0.61s

0.906s

LAGEOS1 TLE:

LAGEOS2 TLE:

1

01-01

Line number

1

2

03-07

Satellite number

08820

22195

3

08-08

Classification (U=Unclassified)

U

U

4

10-11

International Designator (Last two digits of launch year)

76

92

5

12-14

International Designator (Launch number of the year)

039

070

6

15-17

International Designator (Piece of the launch)

A

B

7

19-20

Epoch Year (Last two digits of year)

11

11

8

21-32

Epoch (Day of the year and fractional portion of the day)

094.82079485

095.53472161

9

34-43

First Time Derivative of the Mean Motion divided by two

+.00000016

-.00000009

10

45-52

Second Time Derivative of Mean Motion
divided by six (decimal point assumed)

+00000-0

00000-0

11

54-61

BSTAR drag term (decimal point assumed)

+10000-3

10000-3

12

63-63

The number 0 (formerly "Ephemeris type")

0

0

13

65-68

Element number

0114

319

14

69-69

Checksum (Modulo 10)

1

2

1

01-01

Line number

2

2

2

03-07

Satellite number

08820

22195

3

09-16

Inclination [Degrees]

109.8462

052.6462

4

18-25

Right Ascension of the Ascending Node [Degrees]

077.3556

175.4139

5

27-33

Eccentricity (decimal point assumed)

0044210

0138581

6

35-42

Argument of Perigee [Degrees]

050.5232

279.8295

7

44-51

Mean Anomaly [Degrees]

309.9115

078.6642

8

53-63

Mean Motion [Revs per day]

06.386647845

06.472941934

9

64-68

Revolution number at epoch [Revs]

58975

36229

10

69-69

Checksum (Modulo 10)

5

9

References: