RE: NROL-76 payload speculation

From: Ted Molczan via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2017 10:50:20 -0400
The launch hazard chart for the region near the launch site reveals that the trajectory will follow the northeast coast
of North America; therefore, the target orbit is quasi-60 degree LEO, or Molniya.

http://www.patrick.af.mil/Portals/14/documents/Launch%20Hazard%20Area%20Maps/4-30-2017%20LHA.pdf?ver=2017-04-20-154754-750

Per my earlier posts in this thread, since the return of the Falcon 9's first stage is targeting the launch site, the
payload is either headed for LEO, or is fairly low in mass and headed for Molniya.

If LEO, I suspect it is a replacement or follow-on to the experimental USA 193, which was launched on NROL-21, and
failed upon reaching its 58.5 deg, 360 km orbit.

If Molniya, then I suspect it is a new generation of SDS Molniya, built on Boeing's BSS-702SP bus.

Molniya SDS seems more likely.

Ted Molczan

_______________________________________________
Seesat-l mailing list
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
Received on Fri Apr 21 2017 - 09:51:40 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Apr 21 2017 - 14:51:40 UTC