The gravitational field of the earth

Abstract

A bstract. The theory of the orbit of the Vanguard satellite is developed using as arbitrary constants the six initial orbital elements, the zonal spherical harmonics of the earth's field of degrees 0, 2, 3, 4, and a table of observed values of the mean anomaly at the epoch. Comparison is made with the elements calculated by the Vanguard computing center; it is shown that most of the changes in the elements are reproduced in this way.