Fwd: YUNHAI 1-02 [44547, 2019-063A] Breakup?

From: Scott Tilley via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2021 20:59:38 -0700
Hi All

Here's a Riddle in the Sky...

Apparently YUNHAI 1-02 [44547, 2019-063A] experienced a breakup around 
the Spring Equinox.

https://twitter.com/18spcs/status/1374067474111500290

Spacetrack is tracking multiple DEB objects from the event.

As of 2021-04-20T03:00 UTC there have been 22 DEB objects associated 
with the launch and the payload.  Many of which just appearing over the 
past 3-4 weeks.

A summary of the TLE behaviour since just prior to the 'breakup' event here:

https://twitter.com/coastal8049/status/1383619077113978885

The story gets more interesting...

Via twitter, I was pinged by L-band weather band decoder buffs, that 
YUNHAI 1-02 was claimed active on L-band on April 17. 2021. They are 
decoding encrypted data from an object that appears to correlate to 
YUNHAI 1-02 and that data recovery correlates to signals received prior 
to the reported breakup.  I have received corroboration from other 
decoder/observers that the data seen from this object is consistent with 
YUNHAI 1-02.  Summary of report here:

https://twitter.com/aang254/status/1383381305245585418

Why do I trust the radio observation reports?  Tracking is required to 
aim the fairly narrow beam antennas at the satellite to allow data 
decoding to work over a prolonged period of the pass.  These are 
experienced data receivers familiar with tracking a satellite accurately 
within the requirements of their needs to decode the signal. Therefore, 
the report should be followed up with other third party observation to 
confirm claims.

I haven't observed YUNHAI 1-02 myself on L-band or optically yet. If 
anyone wants to have a look at YUNHAI 1-02 optically that would be 
great.  Radio observations would be welcome too.  Both at the same time, 
magical.

Goals of observations should be to:

1 - Confirm object ID.

2 - Determine light curve.

Some consideration to monitoring and analysis of the DEB objects may be 
warranted.

Regards,

Scott Tilley



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Received on Mon Apr 19 2021 - 23:01:00 UTC

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