>"The [Long March II C] was launched at 11:59 p.m. Sunday at the Xichang >Satellite Launch Center based in southwest China's Sichuan Province. >"About a dozen minutes after lift-off, the carrier rocket first >released the "Experiment Satellite I" and then "Nano-satellite I" 30 seconds >later." The Space-Launcher.com web page gives the names "Tansuo 1 (Shiyan 1)" and "Naxing 1". The "current" elsets are getting close to 2 days old. UNKNOWN OBJECT A 1 28220U 04012A 04110.87500486 -.00007498 +00000-0 -83264-3 0 00116 2 28220 097.7086 195.2032 0010792 317.2518 042.7850 14.86957496000185 CZ-2C R/B 1 28221U 04012B 04110.87504705 +.00001145 +00000-0 +13402-3 0 00067 2 28221 097.7083 195.2039 0010647 317.5168 042.5102 14.86906465000181 UNKNOWN OBJECT B 1 28222U 04012C 04110.86823158 +.00000916 +00000-0 +86165-4 0 00043 2 28222 097.6441 195.3201 0055001 263.3220 096.1739 14.95274108000184 UNKNOWN OBJECT C 1 28223U 04012D 04110.88783826 +.00035253 +00000-0 +53588-2 0 00046 2 28223 097.8159 195.4039 0087200 095.2616 265.8927 14.71319924000184 The very bright tumbling object that Russell Eberst observed is matched by 28222 = 04 12C. I would assume that the A and B objects are the small payloads and that the rocket did some kind of fuel depletion maneuver after injecting them into a nearly circular orbit. Delta V for Object 04 12D relative to the payloads is slightly greater in magnitude and opposite in sign to the delta V for the rocket compared to the payloads? A pyro released "cover"? Interesting. With a height of 380 miles and a sun-sync orbit very near the noon/midnight line, these objects will be "summertime only" objects. Mike McCants ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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