The U.S. Government has declassified its Cold War POPPY electronic intelligence (ELINT) reconnaissance program. Here are links to the NRO's PR and fact sheet, and space.com's article: http://www.nro.gov/PressReleases/prs_rel84.html http://www.nro.gov/PressReleases/POPPY_Program_Fact_Sheet.doc http://www.space.com/news/050915_nro_spysat.html The P.R. states: "The POPPY system was designed to detect land based radar emitters and support ocean surveillance. In its seven launches spanning from 1962 to 1971, POPPY made tremendous contributions to the nation's security during an especially perilous era." The last of seven launches in the program, on 1971 Dec 14, orbited what I have long believed were experimental NOSS. 1971-110A, C, D & E. They remain the only POPPY objects for which official 2-line elements are not available, having been classified in 1983 June. Here are recent hobbyist elsets: NOSS 0 (A) 1.1 0.0 0.0 8.6 v 1 05678U 71110A 05249.93242627 0.00000010 00000-0 10682-4 0 06 2 05678 69.9820 182.1402 0007000 335.2950 24.7050 13.73778059 02 NOSS 0 (C) 0.3 0.9 2.4 9.1 v 1 05680U 71110C 05251.89963693 0.00000020 00000-0 21208-4 0 07 2 05680 69.9840 169.9919 0005000 283.6384 76.3616 13.74224337 05 NOSS 0 (D) 0.3 0.9 2.4 9.1 v 1 05681U 71110D 05248.96775305 0.00000020 00000-0 21236-4 0 04 2 05681 69.9880 177.1365 0005000 308.4635 51.5365 13.74143381 06 NOSS 0 (E) 0.3 0.9 2.4 8.4 v 1 05682U 71110E 05249.88897620 0.00000015 00000-0 15924-4 0 03 2 05682 69.9843 174.9712 0009500 291.9560 68.0440 13.74142278 00 Though I called them NOSS 0, but perhaps Poppy 1-7 would be more appropriate. Until recently, I had assumed that the A object was a launch dispenser, and that objects C, D, and E were the payloads, originally in a triangular formation, as was the case with the first and second generation NOSS. Thanks to information provided recently by Mike Waterman, I now know that all four objects are payloads, and they operated as two pairs within the same orbital plane. Object C trailed A by about 30 s, and E trailed D by a similar time interval. The pairs were separated in time by about 50 minutes. I learned this from observations Mike made in the summer of 1972, and in official 2-line elements released in the 1970's prior to the classification of the data, which Mike retrieved from his paper archives. Appended is a list of all payloads from the seven POPPY launches, extracted from Jonathan McDowell's excellent satellite catalogue. Many of the objects are secondary scientific or R&D payloads, but most of those with names of the form NRL PLnnn, appear to be POPPY ELINT payloads. Like the 1971 launch, the 1967 and 1969 launches included multiple POPPY ELINT payloads; since their orbital elements are unclassified, we can study them to learn whether or not they orbited in formation. Ted Molczan Extracted from: http://www.planet4589.org/space/logs/satcat.txt 502 1962-067A NRL PL120 NRL PL120 Black Sphere USN 504 1962-067B Injun 3 Injun 3 USN 507 1962-067C NRL PL121 NRL PL121 Surcal USN 508 1962-067D SURCAL 2 SURCAL 2 USN 513 1962-067E Calsphere 1 Calsphere 1 USN 601 1963-021B Lofti 2B Lofti IIB USN 599 1963-021C SR 6A Solrad 6A USN 600 1963-021D NRL PL 112 Radose 112 USN 598 1963-021E FTV 1292 NRL PL130? USN 597 1963-021F SURCAL SURCAL USN 728 1964-001B GGSE 1 GGSE 1 NRL 729 1964-001C EGRS 1 Secor 1 USA 730 1964-001D SR 7A SR 7A NRL 731 1964-001E GRAB NRL PL 135 NRL 1271 1965-016A GRAB 6 NRL PL 142 USN 1244 1965-016B GGSE 2 GGSE 2 USN 1292 1965-016C GGSE 3 GGSE 3 USN 1291 1965-016D SR 7B SR 7B USN 1208 1965-016E EGRS 3 Secor 3 USA ACE 1293 1965-016F Oscar 3 Oscar 3 OSCAR 1310 1965-016G SURCAL 4 SURCAL USN 1272 1965-016H Dodecapole I Dodecapole I USN 2826 1967-053A Calsphere IV NRL PL160 NRL 2828 1967-053C GGSE 4 NRL PL151? NRL 2834 1967-053D GGSE 5 NRL PL154? NRL 2847 1967-053E Timation 1 Timation 1 NRL 2872 1967-053F Calsphere III NRL PL159 NRL 2873 1967-053G NRL PL152 NRL PL152 NRL 2874 1967-053H NRL PL153 NRL PL153 NRL 2909 1967-053J NRL PL150B NRL PL150B NRL 4111 1969-082A OPS 1807 EHH B17 NRO/USAF 4256 1969-082B OPS 7613 P/L 1 NRL PL176 NRL 4257 1969-082C Timation 2 Timation 2 NRL 4259 1969-082D OPS 7613 P/L 3 NRL PL161 NRL 4237 1969-082E OPS 7613 P/L 4 NRL PL162 NRL 4247 1969-082F OPS 7613 P/L 5 NRL PL163 NRL 4295 1969-082G OPS 7613 P/L 6 NRL PL164 NRL 4168 1969-082H Tempsat 2 Tempsat 2 NRL 4166 1969-082J SOICAL CYLINDER S69-4 Cylinder NRL 4132 1969-082K SOICAL CONE S69-4 Cone NRL 5678 1971-110A OPS 7898 P/L 1 NRL PL171 NRL 5680 1971-110C OPS 7898 P/L 2 NRL PL172 NRL 5681 1971-110D OPS 7898 P/L 3 NRL PL173 NRL 5682 1971-110E OPS 7898 P/L 4 NRL PL174 NRL ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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