Wie groß sind die Perihel- und Aphel-Abstände der zweiten Stufe der Falcon Heavy?

Es scheint, dass Musks Tweet fehlerhaft war und das Aphel der Umlaufbahn näher bei 1,71 AE statt bei 2,61 AE liegt. Siehe Jonathan McDowells Tweet .

Dies stimmt mit der Umlaufbahnprojektion überein, die jetzt in JPLs Horizonten gezeigt wird :QR= 9.86...E-01 & AD= 1.711...

2458158.500000000 = A.D. 2018-Feb-09 00:00:00.0000 TDB 
 EC= 2.688810432654559E-01 QR= 9.860573082453878E-01 IN= 1.101912591245855E+00
 OM= 3.175070416981074E+02 W = 1.772620363138233E+02 Tp=  2458153.729308890179
 N = 6.292640287243981E-01 MA= 3.002024307551933E+00 TA= 5.405918374698258E+00
 A = 1.348696130995557E+00 AD= 1.711334953745726E+00 PR= 5.720968998176613E+02

  Symbol meaning [1 au= 149597870.700 km, 1 day= 86400.0 s]:

    JDTDB    Julian Day Number, Barycentric Dynamical Time
      EC     Eccentricity, e                                                   
      QR     Periapsis distance, q (au)                                        
      IN     Inclination w.r.t XY-plane, i (degrees)                           
      OM     Longitude of Ascending Node, OMEGA, (degrees)                     
      W      Argument of Perifocus, w (degrees)                                
      Tp     Time of periapsis (Julian Day Number)                             
      N      Mean motion, n (degrees/day)                                      
      MA     Mean anomaly, M (degrees)                                         
      TA     True anomaly, nu (degrees)                                        
      A      Semi-major axis, a (au)                                           
      AD     Apoapsis distance (au)                                            
      PR     Sidereal orbit period (day)  

Die Überschrift erklärt, dass die Datenquelle die Telemetrie der 3. Stufe selbst ist, die von ihrem GPS und anderen internen Daten abgeleitet wird:

Revised: Feb 07, 2018          Tesla Roadster (spacecraft)             -143205

Tesla Roadster (Starman, 2018-017A)

Dummy payload from first launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle 
consisting of a standard Tesla Roadster automobile and a spacesuit-wearing 
mannequin nicknamed Starman. 

Also includes a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster on the car's dash with a 
mini-Starman inside. A data storage device placed inside the car contains 
a copy of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" novels. A plaque on the attachment 
fitting between the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the Tesla is etched with 
the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees.

After orbiting the Earth for 6 hours, a third-stage burn-to-depletion
was completed at approximately 02:30 UTC Feb 7, placing the dummy payload 
in a heliocentric orbit having a perihelion of 0.99 au and aphelion 
~1.7 au.

Payload mass: ~1250 Kg

This trajectory is a ballistic propagation derived from a post-injection 
state provided by SpaceX on 2018-Feb-7, and is based on internal GPS data. 

Prediction errors could increase significantly over time due to unmodeled
solar presure, thermal radiation, or outgassing accelerations that are not
characterized.

Launched: 2018-Feb-06 20:45 UTC by Falcon Heavy (FH) from Kennedy Space 
       Center, USA (launchpad 39A)

0,98 AU und 2,61 AU. Siehe diesen Tweet .