Re: Ted Molczan's object #80000 OBS

John Pike (johnpike@fas.org)
Tue, 14 May 1996 12:58:38 -0400

>He reports seeing an object consistent with the 
>anticipation at 0912, flashing with a 6-second period

This one I could understand as the RB.

>and a second bright object following in its path at 0914, 
>flashing like a flash-cube, with a 1-second period. 

This one I am having a bit more trouble with. I am assuming that this
"bright object" is the payload prior to the triplet separating, as I can't
immediately think of where another *bright* object would come from. I
confess that I am a theoretician rather than a practicioner, but on the face
of things this strikes me as an awfully short period for a rocket body [and
in any event, would not the initial object have been the lower beta RB??],
and I don't 'think' that the PL would normally be flashing like this if it
were functioning normally. Does anyone recall seeing something like this
previously?? [Living on Capital Hill, the Moon, Venus and Jupiter are about
all I ever see].


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John Pike
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Federation of American Scientists
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