The dynamics of the proposed orbit for the AXAF satellite

The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) satellite is planned to be placed in a high-altitude, highly elliptical orbit in the fall of 1998. This orbit is subject to perturbations by the Sun and Moon that will make it change in a manner that is sensitively dependent on the initial conditions and start time and, hence, predictable over long intervals of time only through numerical integration of the equations of motion. The characteristics of such integrated trajectories are discussed here for the AXAF and for the solid motor upper stages used to place it in orbit.