Abstract
A simplified theory, originally developed to investigate the orbital behaviour of operational belts of Needle satellites, is used to compute the perturbations of two balloon satellites. These perturbations are found to agree well with the observed values. For satellites of large area-to-mass ratio there are two situations when the theory is of particular value: firstly, in predicting the variations in eccentricity and argument of perigee when the orbit of such a satellite is almost circular; and, secondly, in preliminary orbital calculations for proposed satellites with perigee heights above about 600 km. The theory may also be helpful in determining a definitive orbit when the argument of perigee is changing rapidly.
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