Strange catalogue changes

From: George Olshevsky (george.olshevsky@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 03 2006 - 23:38:14 EST

  • Next message: George Olshevsky: "Re: Strange catalogue changes"

    A fistful of catalogue changes appeared on Space Track today, some of
    which seem quite mystifying. For example, a few years ago 1994-085E
    was removed from the list of 1994-085 debris, which left 1994-085A
    through AA without an E object. Just a couple of weeks ago, Space
    Track moved all the letters up one, so that 085F through AA became
    085E through Z, which seemed like a fairly rational move. Today they
    have changed them back to F through AA, so there's no E object again.
    Whatever for??
    
    And object 1969-069C has been reidentified as 1969-069D, which leaves
    us with 1969-069A, B, and D, and no C. Again, whatever for?? Are they
    going to change all these back again after they realize the changes
    were unnecessary?
    
    And objects 1978-042B, C, D, and E have all had their common names
    changed from DMSP 5D-1 F2 DEB to AMS 3 DEB--but there's no "AMS 3" in
    that launch, as far as I can tell. Here's what they look like now:
    
    1978-042A       10820   OPS 6182 (DMSP 5D-1 F2)
    1978-042B       10853   AMS 3 debris
    1978-042C       10854   AMS 3 debris
    1978-042D       10913   AMS 3 debris
    1978-042E       10914   AMS 3 debris
    
    Why wouldn't they also have changed the name of 042A to OPS 6182 (AMS 3), say?
    
    Finally, objects 1975-109F and 109K have had asterisks removed from
    their common names: SL-8 DEB * to SL-8 DEB. What does the asterisk
    mean, anyway? I note a number of objects scattered through the SSR
    have them in their common names, for no obvious reason, and I can find
    no explanation at the Space Track website.
    
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