Art Glick posted: >Then I noticed that Ed was referring to >an 'E' object, and thanks to his excellent reporting I was able to check >this on H-A, which identifies Ed's 'E' object instead as "Titan 45K-4 Stage >2". I presume this to be part of a launch vehicle. Or else it is a mistake on the part of H-A. The current Satellite Situation Report says: USA 122 1996-029D 23862 US NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE USA 119 1996-029A 23893 US NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE USA 120 1996-029B 23907 US NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE USA 121 1996-029C 23908 US NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE USA 123 1996-029E 23936 US NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE USA 124 1996-029F 23937 US NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE So there are 6 payloads and Spacecom does not give us any information about whether we are using the correct numbers and designations for the 4 objects and one pair? of objects that we are tracking. :-) Note that the lowest number is D. So my guess is the D is the dispenser, A, B, C are the triangle, and E and F are TiPS. It is possible that 1996 SSRs did have other names for these objects. >By the way, the trailing object (rocket?) was just barely visible without >magnification, but I could not see the other two without binos. It is not unusual for one or two of the objects to be brighter than the others. >I recall there being a bit of mystery regarding the fate of the 'B' >object. I remember reading many discussions regarding that on this list >around the time that subsequent NOSS's were launched. I do not think that the SeeSat-L archives match your memory. :-) In spite of the SSR, we tracked the Centaur rocket as the B object until it decayed in 1999. On the other hand, the A object "disappeared". So if you remember a mystery, it should have been the A object. Mike McCants ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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