Another New Year is upon us and it is time to plan the next set of SDO calibration maneuvers. This includes the leap second that needs to be applied just before January starts. Why do we care about leap seconds? SDO moves about 3 km each second (about 1.9 miles every second). So does every other object in orbit near SDO. We all have to use the same time to make sure our collision avoidance programs are accurate. So we all add a leap second to the end of 2016, delaying 2017 by one second.
Our schedule of maneuvers is:
Our schedule of maneuvers is:
