Re: 2021-076 Chinese Launch

From: Bob Christy via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2021 08:30:41 +0000
Hello Igor and others

The object continues to descend but it has not been joined by either of its companions. The initial descent rate of ~19 km/day has reduced to a steady ~10 km/day. Apogee and perigee are reducing at near-equal rates confirming that the retarding force is acting continuously.

The two other satellites from the launch have now settled into matched orbits at their original height, separated by about 3900 km.

The plots on this page showing the height changes an manoeuvres. They are updated automatically and always show the story so far:
https://www.zarya.info/Diaries/blog/tracks.php?event=China%20Intrigue%20-%202021-076

Has anyone had the opportunity to observe any of these objects?

Robert Christy

> On 30 Aug 2021, at 15:29, Bob Christy <bob_at_zarya.info> wrote:
> 
> Hi Igor
> 
> The KL-alpha mission involved two satellites placed into distinctly different orbits with a common perigee. One orbit was circular and the other elliptical with apogee 400 km higher.
> 
> After three months, the elliptical object lowered apogee to match its partner. It used 8-9 days of incremental manoeuvres with daily use of thrusters.
> https://ww.zarya.info/2019#077
> 
> In the 2021-076 case, the descent is continuous and 076B is moving away from the other two objects. The force causing it seems to be acting constantly, hence my musing about a drag device.
> 
> Cheers
> Robert Christy
> 
>> On 30 Aug 2021, at 14:25, Igor Lissov <lissov-i_at_yandex.ru> wrote:
>> 
>> Bob and the community,
>> 
>> One more object from this launch is expected to descent to the 1050 km orbit.
>> They follow the pattern for KL-Alpha pair launched in 2019, now in the 1050 km orbit.
>> 
>> Igor Lissov
>> 
>> 30.08.2021, 17:11, "Bob Christy via Seesat-l" <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>:
>> This is a triplet of objects launched August 24. After about two and a half days in orbit, 2021-076B started to exhibit orbit-changing ability. It is now about 50km below the other two. The change has been continuous rather than incremental as is usual for orbit manoeuvres.
>> 
>> I have put some notes here
>> https://www.zarya.info/Diaries/blog/tracks.php?event=China%20Intrigue%20-%202021-076
>> 
>> Has anyone observed these and noted anything different about 2021-076B compared with the others? If not, does anyone have current observing opportunities?
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> Robert Christy
>> 
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Received on Wed Sep 15 2021 - 03:32:07 UTC

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