Walter Nissen wrote: >This table is drawn in significant part from Mike McCants' QSMG9604.ZIP = >and Rainer Kracht's message, SeeSat-L #1220, both available from the=20 >SeeSat-L archive:=20 =20 > preferred=20 > vulgar=20 > name McCants Eberst std=20 >cat # cospar USA KH status abs mag Kracht mag ld=20 >15423 84-122 A 6 11-6 out of orbit 3. 4.09 +/- .06 339=20 >18441 87- 90 A 27 11-7 out of orbit?? ?? 4.20 +/- .16 299=20 >19625 88- 99 A 33 11-8 in orbit 3. 3.98 +/- .07 311=20 >22251 92- 83 A 86 11-9 ?? ?? 5.05 +/- .10 333=20 > or 12-1??=20 >23728 95- 66 A 116 11-10, ?? ?? ?? 339=20 > 12-1=20 > or 12-2??=20 >xxxxx?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??=20 =20 >ld is January launch date=20 =20 >Is there a consensus supporting the erasure of any of these question=20 >marks? I would be most appreciative.=20 =20 I do not know of any consensus, but here are some of my thoughts, and = some recent news. Regarding Kh names, I stopped assigning them with the launch of USA 53 = (90019B / 20516), which was deployed by a shuttle, and looked a lot like a kh-class = object. Rainer determined a standard magnitude almost identical to 92083A This could be a = coincidence, but I suspect they are the same type of object, and a new generation IMINT satellite. I = suspect that 95066A is the third of these birds. So, if we decide to give them names other than = their USA numbers, I believe we start the count with 90019B. I tend to agree that Kh probably = is out of date as far as the spooks are concerned, but I see no reason not use Kh 12, = assuming there is a consensus. Perhaps it is too soon for a consensus - I don't know - that = is why I have not raised the issue thus far. Regarding 88099A, Russell Eberst mentioned to me on 21 May that it had = gone missing. The most=20 recent elset I have has epoch 96133 =3D 12 May 96, so it appears that it = disappeared sometime after that date. Has anyone seen it lately? If not, it is reasonable to assume = that it has been de-orbited. This satellite operated in the standard early kh plane for a record 7.5 = years. If 88099A has been deorbited, then that may offer a clue to the unusual = orbit of 95066A. Recall that it's perigee height is about 130 km higher than usual for a = Kh-class sat, and most importantly, its groundtrack repeats every 2 days, instead of the usual 4 days. In = the standard 2-Kh constellation, the late satellite repeated the early satellite's = groundtrack 2 days later. I suspect that the present orbit of 95066A is designed to preserve 2 day = groundtrack repetition, with a single sat - perhaps until a replacement early sat is launched. Also regarding 95066A, as of day 96142, it remained in a significantly = non-sun-synchronous orbit -=20 drifting westward at about 0.05 deg/d. It has been drifting at about = this rate since it was found in April.=20 The simplest explanation is that its operators are adjusting the plane. = The "late" plane had drifted east=20 4 deg between 92135 and 95236, but on 96109 it was only 1.86 deg east, = and on day 96142 it was=20 0.24 deg east. I have no idea when or where it will stop, but I do = expect it stop eventually. It will be interesting to see if the 2-day groundtrack repetition is retained. >These are the only KH elsets in Ted Molczan's file last week:=20 >KH 9-17 ELINT 0.3 0.9 0.0 9.0=20 >1 13172U 82041 C 96 80.04925749 .00000180 00000-0 30389-4 0 01=20 >2 13172 95.9712 280.0823 0004000 68.2280 291.7718 14.69528737 09=20 >KH 9-19 ELINT 0.3 0.9 0.0 9.0=20 >1 15071U 84065 C 96 70.08899125 .00000160 00000-0 26244-4 0 03=20 >2 15071 95.9040 89.9195 0006000 5.8552 354.1446 14.70791019 01=20 >KH 11-8 15.0 3.0 0.0 4.6=20 >1 19625U 88099 A 96133.14429013 .00007300 00000-0 82214-4 0 07=20 >2 19625 97.9340 195.7250 0534000 239.4325 120.5673 14.74800988 09=20 Here is another Kh-9 ELINT sub-satellite: KH 9-16 ELINT 0.3 0.9 0.0 9.0 1 11852U 80052 C 89239.52528800 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 06 2 11852 96.6000 65.0000 0000000 0.0000 0.0000 12.82980000 01 I determined its elset from Doppler shift observations by a U.S.=20 satellite radio hobbyist. (I would like to credit him, but I do not=20 have his permission to do so, and I have lost track of him.) He = monitored=20 its blank carrier signal on 432.882 MHz during Aug-Sep 1989. I tried to = make visual obs, but could not see it with 11x80s, under favourable = conditions. Pierre Neirinck, working with Dutch radio observers, derived a similar orbit, and announced the identification only hours before I did. We were = not competing - neither team knew the other was working on the problem. Small world! 80052C went silent soon after we identified it. There was speculation=20 that it had died years before, but had revived briefly, perhaps due to warming by the sun. That was my first and only foray into Doppler work, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. bye for now