Re: Kosmos 2542/2543 vs USA 245?

From: Nico Janssen via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2020 14:50:24 +0100
I recovered USA 245 (39232). Preliminary TLE set for its new 286x999 km 
orbit:

USA 245
1 39232U 13043A   19365.39943200  .00010000  00000-0  10147-3 0 04
2 39232  97.8900  64.1996 0508394 225.3404 281.4041 14.75824432 08

As usual further TLE updates will be provided in this file:
https://hamsat1.home.xs4all.nl/tle.tle

The orbit planes of USA 245 and Kosmos 2543 are now only 0.26 degrees apart.
Kosmos 2543 is still in its 589x860 km orbit.

NJ

On 26-12-19 15:55, Nico Janssen via Seesat-l wrote:
>
> Kosmos 2542 was launched on 2019-11-25 into a 368x857 km orbit.
> Interestingly, its orbit plane is almost exactly the same as USA 245's
> orbit plane. The difference is less than 1 degree.
>
> On 2019-12-06 the inspector satellite Kosmos 2543 was deployed from
> Kosmos 2542. After some initial maneuvers near its 'mother' satellite
> Kosmos 2543 started raising its orbit.
>
> On 2019-12-09 or 2019-12-10 USA 245 changed its orbit. Before its
> maneuver it was in a 272x985 km orbit. This is the last TLE set that I
> could determine before the maneuver:
> USA 245
> 1 39232U 13043A   19342.41935900  .00010000  00000-0  10147-3 0 00
> 2 39232  97.8900  42.9218 0508960 301.2530 203.1441 14.80147872 09
>
> I lost track of USA 245 after its orbit maneuver. I suspect it is now 
> in a
> much higher orbit.
>
> Kosmos 2542 is still in its original orbit. But meanwhile Kosmos 2543 has
> climbed to a 590x859 km orbit, still in the same orbit plane as USA 245.
>
> So what is going on? Is Kosmos 2543 chasing USA 245? And is USA 245
> trying to escape by changing its orbit? Or is all this just a 
> coincidence?
>
>
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Received on Thu Jan 02 2020 - 07:51:35 UTC

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