USA 144 - fascinating info

Philip Chien (kc4yer@amsat.org)
Mon, 7 Jun 1999 20:07:28 -0400

OIG added some *very* interesting items to their catalog today -

USA 144
1 25744U 99028A      No Elements Available

TITAN 4 R/B    Decayed: 1999/06/01
1 25745U 99028B   99144.99058024  .00785832  79431-5  55546-3 0    42
2 25745  63.3898  93.1775 0070162 170.4206 189.8324 16.10130841   112
USA 144 DEB
1 25746U 99028C      No Elements Available

USA 144 DEB
1 25747U 99028D      No Elements Available

USA 144 DEB
1 25748U 99028E      No Elements Available

USA 144 DEB
1 25749U 99028F      No Elements Available

PEGASUS DEB
1 25750U 94029AEH 99143.89593001  .00002081  00000-0  68643-3 0    19
2 25750  82.4265   8.1212 0348587  19.4246 339.8979 14.08446832  5736
USA 144 DEB
1 25751U 99028G      No Elements Available

USA144 DEB
1 25752U 99028H      No Elements Available

USA 144 DEB
1 25753U 99028J      No Elements Available

USA 144 DEB
1 25754U 99028K      No Elements Available

USA 144 DEB
1 25755U 99028L      No Elements Available


So the implications are a single payload (USA 144 99 28A) plus 9(!) debris
objects.  Certainly not anticipated (although Ted Molczan did bring up the
possibility of multiple objects).  They're clearly cataloged as debris
objects.

I don't have any good passes from Ted's predicted element sets - but
*somebody* on Seesat should.  Let's find this puppy folks!


Philip Chien, KC4YER
Earth News
world (in)famous writer, science fiction fan, ham radio operator,
all-around nice guy, etc.