Say a rocket body identified as 20xx-nnnB blows up in orbit and generates a flurry of fragments 20xx-nnnG-EX. What determines which object retains the identifier 20xx-nnnB after the blowup? Is it (a) the largest or brightest or most-radar-visible fragment, (b) the fragment whose orbit is closest to that of the rocket body 20xx-nnnB prior to the explosion, or (c) simply a fragment from the flurry picked at random? Would one still call that particular object "rocket body" and all the other objects "fragments," or would it become just another "fragment" like the rest? Or would that depend on how much of the rocket body remains intact after the explosion? Speaking of rocket bodies, what is the difference between a rocket body and a rocket body >casing<, which sometimes occur separately in lists of objects from a particular launch? Is a "casing" the same thing as a "separator," that is, a ring-shaped piece of hardware placed in between two successive upperstages that is discarded when the higher stage pulls away from the lower stage? Also, what is the difference between a "rocket," a "motor," and an "engine," all three of which occur in various places in the RAE table? I presume something like a third stage is a major "rocket" and not a "motor" or an "engine," whereas separate smaller auxiliary units would just be "rockets," "motors," and/or "engines." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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