Re: USA-32 et al.
Phillip Clark (psclark@dircon.co.uk)
Sun, 18 May 1997 18:24:41 +0100 (BST)
On Sun, 18 May 1997, VideoCosmos wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> Of three satellites launched by first three Titan 23G's,
> USA-32 (19460, 1988-078A) and USA-81 (21949, 1992-023A) are
> regularly observed and are relatively easy to see. On the
> contrary, I've never seen a mention of USA-45 (20220, 1989-072A)
> observed.
> Does the fact mean that USA-45 was of another type or just
> that this bird was missed initially due to some difficulties
> and never recovered? If the latter is true, we can possibly
> re-discover it with some assumptions on the structure of this
> constellation. If I modelled USA-32 and USA-81 correctly, USA-81
> plane is 90 deg to the West of USA-32. Maybe USA-45 is
> 90 deg to the East, or it bissects the 32/81 spacing? What do
> you think?
This is the revised write-up which I have prepared for the new edition of
Jane's Space Directory:-
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TITAN-23G FERRETS
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The latest class of ferret satellites was not identified
until 1992 when Russia's TASS news agency reported on 22
April that a third ELINT satellite was about to be
launched on a Titan-2. In fact, only three launches
appear to have taken place in this series.
The first launch which used a Titan-23G vehicle placed
USA 32 into a near-circular 85 deg, 790 km orbit in
September 1988. Although a White Cloud payload had
been expected for the Titan launch, this orbit was
totally unlike those found within the White Cloud
programme. A year later USA 45 launched, but TASS
claimed that a technical failure had meant that the
satellite burned up in the atmosphere seven days after
launch. The USAF claimed that the launch had been
successful, suggesting that the fault had been with the
satellite itself (similar to the Landsat 6 loss four
years later). USA 81 was launched in April 1992 and in
1995 it was claimed that the programme had ended.
Amateur visual observers have tracked USA 32 and USA 81
in orbit and the orbits in the accompanying table are
based upon these observations. The orbital plane of
USA 81 is 90 deg to the west of that for USA 32.
Apparent confirmation that USA 45 was a similar
satellite comes from the fact that its orbital plane
would have been 90 deg to the east of that for USA 32 if
it had reached the same 85 deg, 790 km orbital slot.
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Launches of Titan-23G Ferret Missions
Launch Date Satellite Incl Period Perigee Apogee
deg min km km
1988 Sep 5 USA 32 85.0 100.6 784 791
1989 Sep 6 USA 45 Low Earth Orbit ?
1992 Apr 25 USA 81 85.0 100.7 792 792
In the absence of orbital data from USSPACECOM the
orbits shown above are based upon visual observations of
the first and third satellites: USA 45 appears to have
remained in a low orbit from which it decayed on 13
September 1989.
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Phillip Clark
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Phillip S Clark 25 Redfern Avenue
Molniya Space Consultancy Whitton
Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Launches Middx TW4 5NA
Editor, Jane's Space Directory U.K.
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