Good morning Rather a long posting but I hope of interest. Every year around about February the Space Debris Office of the European Space Operations Centre, run by ESA, releases a report called CLASSIFICATION OF GEOSYNCHRONOUS OBJECTS. Several years ago the amateur high altitude fratenity adopted the satellites in this report that fall under the UNKNOWN category. Initially the observation/radio success rate was low as most of these objects are small and thus faint. However as the groups capabilities have improved so has the success rate so that today probably less than a dozen have still to be located and tracked. In most cases this failure to locate is because we have no observers in certain regions or the satellites may be frequently moved. Introducing these satellites into the amateur catalog possed a problem since it introduced yet another naming convention. In an attempt to minimize this once an ESA object had been tracked and its real identity determined, it was added under its correct name into the catalog. For those objects that could not be associated with any particular launch the number 96*** appears in the so-called CLASSFD.TLE maintained by the observational amateurs. Although the element database is called CLASSFD.TLE not all objects are classified. The database is essentially a collection of elements for satellites that are not in the public domain or do not appear in the public SPACETRACK catalog for one or other reason. The motivation behind the ESA reports are simply to have as complete a representation of what happens in the GEO belt as possible.This area is becoming terribly over crowded and the situation is not improving. There is a real danger posed by objects in this region for which data is not in the public domain or available to satellite operators at a minimum. This was vividly highlighted by the DSP-F23 incident which is not yet over and will present a threat for many years to come, so it is becoming increasingly obvious that one cannot allow the luxury of secret objects in orbit if they present a threat to any other satellite. Even when satellites are known collisions are inevitable as we have just seen with the IRIDIUM/COSMOS crash. In this case a major slip-up probably occurred as the IRIDIUM satellite should have been able to move to avoid it but since such an incident had not knowingly occurred before vigilance was a little lax. I dont think this will be the case in future., but with "unknown" satellites flying about how does one take evasive action? Anyway be that as it may.... ESA REPORT #11 has enabled the amateurs to correct several errors as well as add new objects and I believe the summary below is a reasonably accurate representation of the current situation. I suspect there may still be some errors and welcome corrections. Whilst it has been possibly to provide identities for many of the ESA objects some remain unknown . The ESA report gives a list of objects that are known to have been orbited but have not yet been identified so many of these objects are no doubt present in the ESA catalog of unknown objects. Some of these objects are bright ( brighter than magnitude +12) so are obviously reasonably big objects and probably the main payload, others flash at various rates so could be rocket bodies or other large debri. Many of the objects are small - like telescope dust covers,cooler covers,entry baffle covers,array restraint cables etc - and are difficult to observe. Typically a 16th magnitude object at geo distance is around 1/2 metre in size. Sometimes the orbital period is also an indication of an operational payload. In the table below is the current situation for the amateur network and amateur elements,based on amateur observations, are maintained. The first colum is the amateur designation for an ESA object. ESA use UI001 to represent UNKNOWN OBJECT 001. The amateurs have replaced the UI by 96 so pretty straight forward. The second column gives the International Designation number The third column is the COSPAR identification The fourth column is the amateur designation which has been in use for many years , ie 90 followed by a sequential number The final column identifies the object, if identity known ======================================================================== 96001 26880 01033A 90031 DSP F21 USA 159 96002 not yet observed 96003 90066 05667A 90066 Unknown 050616 96004 26356 00024A 90033 DSP F20 USA 149 96005 observed 96006 observed 96007 26635 00080A 90043 SDS 3F2 USA 155 GREAT BEAR 96008 23223 94054A 90054 MERCURY 1 USA 105 96009 10941 78058A VORTEX 1 96010 observed 96011 observed 96012 observed 96013 27169 02001B MILSTAR 5 r 96014 90049 05605C 90049 Unknown 050415 96015 observed 96016 90048 05605B 90048 Unknown 050415 96017 90030 05544A 90030 Unknown 050213 96018 19976 89035A 90055 VORTEX 6 96019 observed 96020 observed 96021 90008 00838A 90008 Unknown 001203 96022 observed 96023 11558 79086A 90051 VORTEX 2 96024 90075 05605D 90075 Unknown 050415 96025 observed 96026 14675 84009A 90053 VORTEX 4 96027 observed 96028 observed 96029 observed 96030 18583 87097A 90071 DSP F13 USA 28 96031 observed 96032 observed 96033 not yet observed 96034 15453 84129A DSP F12 USA 7 96035 05204 71039A DSP F2 96036 04376 70032A INTELSAT-3F7 96037 14930 84037A 90003 DSP F11 96038 observed 96039 observed 96040 observed 96041 not yet observed 96042 90073 07569A 90073 Unknown 070310 96043 05851 72010A DSP F3 96044 not yet observed 96045 12339 81025A 90050 DSP F9 96046 13086 82019A DSP F10 96047 observed 96048 06691 73040A 90002 DSP F4 96049 observed 96050 observed 96051 90074 06585B 90074 Unknown 060326 96052 08916 76059A 90041 DSP F6 96053 11397 79053A 90069 DSP F8 96054 observed 96055 observed 96056 08482 75118A 90072 DSP F5 96057 09803 77007A 90067 DSP F7 96058 observed 96059 observed 96060 observed 96061 observed 96062 observed 96063 27168 02001A MILSTAR 5 (MILSTAR-2F3 USA 164) 96064 27712 03012B MILSTAR 6 r 96065 25967 99063A 90036 UFO F10 USA 146 96066 22915 93074A 90042 DSCS 3-8 USA 97 96067 not yet observed 96068 23132 94035A UFO F3 USA 104 96069 22787 93056A 90034 UFO F2 USA 95 96070 observed 96071 observed 96072 27938 03041B USA 171 r 96073 23855 96026A 90016 MERCURY 2 USA 118 96074 25336 98029A 90013 MENTOR 2 USA 139 96075 90005 99804A 90005 Unknown 991031 96076 observed 96077 observed 96078 observed 96079 observed 96080 observed 96081 observed 96082 observed 96083 20929 90095A DSP F15 USA 65 96084 observed 96085 observed 96086 not yet observed 96087 not yet observed 96088 observed 96089 observed 96090 90022 04764A 90022 Unknown 040920 96091 observed 96092 20963 90097B 90063 SDS2 F2 USA 67 96093 observed 96094 observed 96095 observed 96096 12046 80087A 90029 FLEETSATCOM 4 96097 15543 85010B 90037 MAGNUM 1 USA 8 96098 11890 80060A EKRAN 5 96099 not yet observed 96100 not yet observed 96101 10669 78016A FLEETSATCOM 1 96102 observed 96103 observed 96104 DSCS 3-11 96105 26575 00065A DSCS 3-12 USA 153 96106 27691 03008A 90035 DSCS 3-13 USA 167 96107 27875 03040A 90024 DSCS 3-14 USA 170 96108 28158 04004A DSP F22 96109 27711 03012A MILSTAR 6 (MILSTAR-2F4) USA 169 96110 not yet observed 96111 25258 98016A UFO F8 USA 138 96112 26715 01009A MILSTAR 4 (MILSTAR-2F3) USA 157 96113 25501 98058A UFO F9 USA 140 96114 GEOLITE ? not yet observed 96115 DSCS ? not yet observed 96116 23967 96042A UFO F7 USA 127 96117 28117 03057A 90038 UFO F11 USA 174 96118 27937 03041A MENTOR 3 USA 171 96119 not yet observed 96120 DSCS 3-F7 96121 23467 95003A UFO F4 USA 108 96122 23589 95027A 90009 UFO F5 USA 111 96123 DSCS 3-F6 96124 23712 95060A MILSTAR 2 (MILSTAR DFS-2) USA 115 96125 24737 97008A DSP F18 USA 130 96126 observed 96127 not yet observed 96128 23567 95022A MENTOR 1 96129 12930 81107A VORTEX 3 96130 20253 89077A FLEETSATCOM 8 USA 46 96131 not yet observed 96132 observed 96133 21805 91080B 90068 DSP F16 USA 75 96134 FLTSATCOM-7 96135 13637 82106B DSCS 3-F1 96136 20355 89090B MAGNUM 2 USA 48 96137 observed 96138 not yet observed 96139 90007 00653A 90007 Unknown 080229 96140 29242 06024C 90078 MiTEx U/S r USA 189 96141 32287 07054A DSP F23 USA 197 96142 22988 94009A 90023 MILSTAR 1 (MILSTAR DFS-1) USA 99 96143 not yet observed 96144 observed 96145 observed 96146 90076 07761A 90076 Unknown 070918 96147 32288 07054B USA 197 r 96148 not yet observed 96149 not yet observed 96150 not yet observed 96151 01046A SDS 3-F3 USA 162 96152 07046A WGS-F1 USA 195 As Bugs Bunny (I think?) used to say "Thas all Folks!" Cheers Greg ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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