[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sedna_*]

Hi everybody,

finally this couple of satellites were launched today... Do you know how long will it take for them to "catch" the A-train of satellites?

Regards

[djellison]

I read it's about 30 - 32 days of on orbit checkout and orbital manouvers to move into the A-Train.

Doug

[paxdan]

Info about the A-Train.

from TFA:

For much of its life, the A-Train will be maintained in orbit within 15 minutes of the leading and trailing spacecraft while traveling at over 15,000 miles per hour. CloudSat and CALIPSO will be controlled to an even finer requirement, within 15 seconds of each other, so that both instrument suites will view the same cloud area at nearly the same moment. This capability is crucial for studying clouds, which have lifetimes often less than 15 minutes.