Re: Satellite Database released

From: George Olshevsky (george.olshevsky@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Dec 09 2005 - 01:22:53 EST

  • Next message: Ed Cannon: "some recent PPAS reports"

    On 12/8/05, Ted Molczan <seesat@rogers.com> wrote:
    
    > I believe there is now general agreement that the object in question is not USA
    > 144. Also, I believe there is general agreement that its orbital perturbations
    > and optical behaviour (it rotates) suggests that it is debris-like. A low mass
    > decoy could also appear debris-like, and some folks, including myself, have come
    > to believe that it probably is a decoy. I doubt there is general agreement on
    > whether it is debris or a decoy, so it reasonable to expect some folks to
    > include "debris" in their name for the object, and others to include "decoy".
    >
    > I have just looked at Mike's latest orbital elements updates, and I see that he
    > has adopted my recommendation for 99028C / 25746, and is using the name "USA 144
    > Deb". I will call it "Misty 2 Decoy".
    
    Here's how I currently list the objects from this launch (this will
    probably wrap atrociously, so please cut and paste into some kind of
    monospaced font)
    
    Int. desig.    Cat. No.          Period   Incl.   Apogee    Perigee         RCS
    1999-028A       25744   US        148.5    63.4     3123       2695         N/A
      USA 144 (Misty 2)                      Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028B       25745   US         87.5    63.4      165        141     58.8288
      Titan 4B-12 2nd stage (LR91AJ11A)       Launched (05/22/1999) 
    Decayed [06/02/1999]
    
    1999-028C       25746   US         92.2    63.4      390        376         N/A
      Misty 2 decoy                          Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028D       25747   US         90.9    63.4      373        264         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028E       25748   US         89.5    63.4      299        200         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028F       25749   US         89.5    63.4      299        200         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028G       25751   US         89.5    63.4      299        200         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028H       25752   US         87.7    63.3      172        153      0.0745
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999) 
    Decayed [02/20/2000]
    
    1999-028J       25753   US         89.5    63.4      299        200         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028K       25754   US         89.5    63.4      299        200         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    1999-028L       25755   US         89.5    63.4      299        200         N/A
      USA 144 hardware                       Launched (05/22/1999)
    
    The orbital elements are mainly from Jonathan McDowell's table. I
    wonder about the other objects for this launch. The orbital elements
    are pretty low and if those are the original elements (within a couple
    of days of launch, according to epoch dates at Jonathan's website),
    they should have decayed a long time ago, but here they are still in
    orbit. This suggests E-G, J-L might be quite dense, perhaps some kind
    of payloads, certainly not fairings or other such
    high-surface-area-to-mass hardware. H started out quite low and came
    down pretty quickly.
    
    Also, some websites that carry Misty information suggest that A, the
    high-orbit object, is the decoy and C is the actual Misty payload. But
    if so, how and why did A get all the way up there on its own if it's
    merely a decoy? What's it decoying us all away from?
    
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