The object is now catalogued as USA 327, 52259/2022-40A. There is no corresponding entry for the Falcon 9 upper stage, presumably indicating that de-orbit was successful after one revolution. A thought - if the second object does not appear, it may be worth monitoring how this object settles down in relation to the co-planar NOSS 3 - 6 pair. China has a similar operational constellation of Yaogan 31 satellites that orbit as triplets. Recently it has launched two Yaogan 34s that each orbit at a fixed distance behind a Yaogan 31 set - http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/blog/tracks.php?event=Yaogan%2034%20-%20The%20Shadow Robert Christy > On 18 Apr 2022, at 11:37, Marco Langbroek via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org> wrote: > > Updated preliminary NROL-85 elset, based on observations reported by Eelke Visser and me: > > NROL-85 (USA 327) > 1 70002U 22999A 22108.04497945 0.00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 07 > 2 70002 63.5043 123.5866 0114230 185.9890 173.9785 13.40421486 07 > > rms 0.024 deg, from 21 observations Apr 17.83 - Apr 18.06 UT > > This corresponds to a ~1193 x 1022 km orbit, 63.5 degree inclined. > > Barring any large manoeuvres (which is always possible!), this elset should be good to within a few seconds coming night. > > I suggest we keep looking for a second object in a wide time window around nominal pass times of this object. > > So far, the apparent absence of a secondary payload is interesting. Either this is not an INTRUDER/NOSS mission after all; or it is an improved version of INTRUDER that now only needs one single satellite (they once started with three); or we somehow missed the second payload. > > These kind of surprises is what keeps tracking interesting! > > For new observers: your observations are very welcome, but a plea to report your observations in IOD format: > > http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html > > My "IOD Entry" software available at http://software.langbroek.org can help you to easily create IOD formatted datalines from your raw data. > > - Marco > > > ----- > Dr Marco Langbroek - SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands. > e-mail: sattrackcam_at_langbroek.org > > launchtower: http://launchtower.langbroek.org > Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com > Twitter: _at_Marco_Langbroek > ----- > _______________________________________________ > Seesat-l mailing list > http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Mon Apr 18 2022 - 15:42:01 UTC
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