#25000 and counting
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 4 Oct 1997 10:38:11 +0100
The number of NORAD/USSPACECOM catalogued objects has surged through the
#25000 mark in the past few hours. This is thanks mainly to another
flurry of Pegasus fragments, taking the series of international
designations for these to 94-029 ADG.
#25000 has been assigned, however, to...
68- 81 G 36087 x 35067 km
1 25000U 68081G 97270.00000000 -.00000003 00000-0 10000-3 0 17
2 25000 13.3405 1.7877 0121566 138.3731 262.3080 1.01034365 19376
and #25001 (the latest catalogued object) is "H" from the same launch.
In my select.tle file, I am designating these as debris from ERS 21
(#3430) which has no current elements. However, they may be from OV2-5
(#3428), LES 6 (#3431) or their Titan 3c transtage r (#3432). The
previous debris from the launch was called "ERS 28 debris" (#5999 = 68-
81 F) which, like ERS 28 itself, decayed more than 20 years ago from an
eccentric 26 degrees inclination orbit.
I include all newly catalogued objects in select.tle. However, interest
in some debris objects, particularly Pegasus ones, probably does not
justify their inclusion for more than a few days so expect them to
disappear from the file quite soon.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Home: alan@wingar.demon.co.uk +44 (0)131 477 9144
Scotland | SatEvo satellite page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/