On Sun, 18 May 1997, VideoCosmos wrote: > Hi everybody, > Of three satellites launched by first three Titan 23G's, > USA-32 (19460, 1988-078A) and USA-81 (21949, 1992-023A) are > regularly observed and are relatively easy to see. On the > contrary, I've never seen a mention of USA-45 (20220, 1989-072A) > observed. > Does the fact mean that USA-45 was of another type or just > that this bird was missed initially due to some difficulties > and never recovered? If the latter is true, we can possibly > re-discover it with some assumptions on the structure of this > constellation. If I modelled USA-32 and USA-81 correctly, USA-81 > plane is 90 deg to the West of USA-32. Maybe USA-45 is > 90 deg to the East, or it bissects the 32/81 spacing? What do > you think? This is the revised write-up which I have prepared for the new edition of Jane's Space Directory:- ----------------- TITAN-23G FERRETS ----------------- The latest class of ferret satellites was not identified until 1992 when Russia's TASS news agency reported on 22 April that a third ELINT satellite was about to be launched on a Titan-2. In fact, only three launches appear to have taken place in this series. The first launch which used a Titan-23G vehicle placed USA 32 into a near-circular 85 deg, 790 km orbit in September 1988. Although a White Cloud payload had been expected for the Titan launch, this orbit was totally unlike those found within the White Cloud programme. A year later USA 45 launched, but TASS claimed that a technical failure had meant that the satellite burned up in the atmosphere seven days after launch. The USAF claimed that the launch had been successful, suggesting that the fault had been with the satellite itself (similar to the Landsat 6 loss four years later). USA 81 was launched in April 1992 and in 1995 it was claimed that the programme had ended. Amateur visual observers have tracked USA 32 and USA 81 in orbit and the orbits in the accompanying table are based upon these observations. The orbital plane of USA 81 is 90 deg to the west of that for USA 32. Apparent confirmation that USA 45 was a similar satellite comes from the fact that its orbital plane would have been 90 deg to the east of that for USA 32 if it had reached the same 85 deg, 790 km orbital slot. -------------------------------------------------------- Launches of Titan-23G Ferret Missions Launch Date Satellite Incl Period Perigee Apogee deg min km km 1988 Sep 5 USA 32 85.0 100.6 784 791 1989 Sep 6 USA 45 Low Earth Orbit ? 1992 Apr 25 USA 81 85.0 100.7 792 792 In the absence of orbital data from USSPACECOM the orbits shown above are based upon visual observations of the first and third satellites: USA 45 appears to have remained in a low orbit from which it decayed on 13 September 1989. -------------------------------------------------------- Phillip Clark --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phillip S Clark 25 Redfern Avenue Molniya Space Consultancy Whitton Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Launches Middx TW4 5NA Editor, Jane's Space Directory U.K. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------