It was launched from a Pegasus rocket, carried by a L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, on 18th May 1999.
A short while ago, when I was looking up data for space shuttle orbits at the Celestrak website, I noticed a 2 line orbital element for this satellite.
Being the nickname of myself and also my favourite football team, I decided to look further into the possibility of making a 3d model of this satellite for Celestia.
Finding information wasn't too difficult, as the satellite was commissioned to Boston University by NASA as part of their Student Explorer Demonstration Initiative.
There was plenty of info to be found at their university website. This includes the sad story of the history of this satellite, once it got into orbit.
After a few attempts, over the last few months, to find inspiration to work on this rather 'orrible looking object, I have finally completed it.
But even if it doesn't look very handsome, at least it has a nice 97.5 degree inclined polar orbit of the Earth.
If anybody is interested, it is currently available for download at my website in a 3ds version. (436 kb zipped)
Or
in a cmod version. (633 kb zipped)
Earlier today I uploaded the cmod model to the Motherlode, so it should be available there shortly.
Because I'm only a "dumb-ass" Windows XP user, I would be very grateful if any Linux users out there could test if everything installs and works OK on their systems.
regards,
TERRIER
Added 6th April 2005
Repaired wrong facing 'normal' to missing face of triangular bracket.
