Antonin Vitek pointed out that USA 164 has been assigned to Milstar 5, despite USA 163 not having been assigned to a payload. To make matters more confusing, hobbyists are tracking two payloads from the 2001-040 launch, yet only one (USA 160) has been catalogued. We know that there are two payloads, because both objects have manoeuvred roughly a half dozen times since launch. Both objects were deployed soon after launch, long before the launch of 2001-044A. Here is a summary of recent launches: 2001-040A USA 160 2001-040B Atlas 2AS CENTAUR R/B 2001-040C USA 160 DEB 2001-044A USA 161 2001-046A USA 162 ????????? USA 163 2002-001A USA 164 Perhaps the object catalogued as debris (2001-040C) is in fact the payload, incorrectly catalogued. Could it be that USA 163 has been assigned to the second 2001-040 payload, but not yet catalogued? The simplest explanation could be that USA 163 should have been assigned to 2002-001A, but someone lost count, and assigned USA 164. As for the second 2001-040 payload, either there has been a cataloguing error, or it has been decided to delay cataloguing it, even though the object is readily trackable. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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