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![]() | Launches and Orbital Operations |
Tyneside, UK 2025 Feb 19 Wednesday, Day 50 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Curated by:
Special Orbits:
Coming Down:
Recent Years:
Between Times:
Earlier Times:
Orbital elements based on amateur observations
Satellite observers' discussion group
Database of amateur observations using radio
Primary source of unclassified orbital elements
| 1957 - Launches to Orbit and Beyond
Listed are launches, irrespective of outcome, that were irretrievably committed to flight towards orbit or intended to accelerate the payload to escape velocity. The following notes should help with understanding the launch lists.
Launch times are in UTC and are either from the launching agency or estimated by 'walking back' along the ground track to the launch site.
Most orbit data and decay information comes from SpaceTrack. The Space-Track data occasionally contains inconsistencies (eg - incorrect re-entry dates or early sets of elements allocated to the wrong object) that need to be corrected from other sources.
To fill the gaps where elements are not formally published, usually because they have a classification of "Secret", some orbits are based on amateur observations. Such data is published near-daily by Mike McCants. Occasionally, orbits are estimated by myself from public data.
Space-Track sometimes has insufficient information to allocate names to objects in its catalogue. In these cases, names are derived from public information.
Apogee and perigee are measured against a spherical Earth with a radius of 6378.145 km, assumed to be situated at the focus of the orbital ellipse. The value for the orbital period is the Anomalistic Period, or time to complete one circuit of the ellipse. It is not the same as the time taken to complete one circuit of the Earth. Care should be exercised when comparing Orbital Focus data with other published orbits because they may have been derived using a different model.
Users can go straight to specific launches by pointing to the page URL followed by the three digit launch number, eg - https://www.OrbitalFocus/Diaries/Launches/Launches.php?year=1957#001
You can keep up to date with changes or mission events by following Orbital Focus at Blue Sky.
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