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ISS Orbit Numbers


Astro_Liam

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Hi there,

Hoping someone can help me out.

I am wanting to find out how the orbit numbers for the Space Station are defined for that day. I am asking on behalf of a developer of a Satellite Tracking program(WXtrack).

All was working well, with the orbit numbers matching up with NASAs display in the ISS control room, however recently they seem to be out of sync.

For example at 16.00 UTC the space station was on its 14th Orbit for today, yet wxtrack is showing 11th. The developer is trying to fix this but as he is unsure how these numbers are defined its proving a bit difficult.

I have a friend on facebook that works in the control room and he says this

"Not really sure of criteria on when Orbit 1 begins, will need to check. It's not based on GMT 00, we just started a new Orbit 1 at approximately 20 GMT. That also means it is not based on the original launch time of Zarya, which was 06:40 GMT ON 11/20/98."

I hope this makes sense, and appreciate any help.

Liam

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