Effective immediately, I have changed the NOSS 2-3 designations in my database (to be reflected in future weekly xxx.n2l files), so that the NORAD numbers match the international designators. The changes are as follows: Int'l NORAD Desig Old New ------ ----- ----- 96029A 23862 23893 96029B 23893 23907 96029C 96293 23908 96029D 96294 23862 96029E 96295 23936 96029? 96290 23937 (Int'l designator changed to 96029F) Except for 96029?, which is now 96029F, the international designators are the ones that have been in common use by the hobbyist folks who do most of the tracking and differential corrections of these objects. Although the NORAD number and international pairings now conform to those reported by NASA/GSFC/OIG, the objects assigned to them do not. Given NORAD's penchant for later changing assignments, the observer analysts long ago decided to use make their own assignments, and to stick to them. This helps minimize confusion with all their past observations, which are always recorded by international designator. The NOSS triad members pose a particular problem, because we do not know for certain which is which. The international designator convention adopted by the hobbyists is summarized in the following table: 90050 91076 96029 Leader B C C Trailer C D D Outlier D E E In the case of the 90050 objects, the B,C,D conforms to OIG, but the USA reported C,D,E to the United Nations. I the case of 96029, OIG is reporting B,C,D, and I do not know whether or not that will be reported to the U.N. Here are the latest elements for the five objects currently being tracked. NOSS 2-3 (D) 3.0 2.0 0.0 6.5 1 23862U 96029 D 96189.95353316 .00000005 00000-0 90019-5 0 07 2 23862 63.4270 126.3365 0070000 175.8343 184.1657 13.40263415 00 NOSS 2-3 r 9.8 3.0 0.0 5.0 1 23907U 96029 B 96245.14465912 .00014000 00000-0 10487-3 0 06 2 23907 63.4264 244.8773 0266000 159.5087 200.4913 15.37701227 06 NOSS 2-3 (C) 3.0 2.0 0.0 6.5 1 23908U 96029 C 96189.95355024 .00000005 00000-0 89945-5 0 02 2 23908 63.4250 126.1830 0072000 184.7343 175.2657 13.40263015 02 NOSS 2-3 (E) 3.0 2.0 0.0 6.5 1 23936U 96029 E 96189.95360834 .00000005 00000-0 90020-5 0 04 2 23936 63.4250 126.3460 0070000 174.8497 185.1503 13.40262865 04 TiPS 3.5 0.0 0.0 5.7 1 23937U 96029 F 96203.14225450 .00000250 00000-0 31455-3 0 04 2 23937 63.4290 89.9941 0003001 264.4275 95.5725 13.63763114 02 Ted Molczan