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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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