Nugget From Latest NASA Orbital Debris Quarterly News

From: Charles Phillips via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Thu, 2 May 2019 10:29:16 -0600 (MDT)
All -

While catching up on some routine reading, this popped out:

Mr. Ron Berkley, A3/6Z, presented the final charts on the proposed satellite catalog renumbering plan. To address the limited time that five digit satellite numbers will be available for cataloging targets, a nine digit numbering system was proposed that included three-line element sets (3LE). The proposed memo to accept the new numbering system was not approved and an alternative solution is underway. The Alpha-5 TLE is a stopgap measure that would utilize alpha numeric characters after the five digit catalog is exceeded. This is still under development and approval for implementation needs to be authorized.

This is from a report of an Orbital Debris workshop between the US Air Force and NASA, from Oct 2018.

Someone here must have heard more about the format of this Alpha- 5 TLE? In a quick search I cannot find it. I cannot see any mention on Space-Track.org for instance. 

We will need to update software dealing with satellite numbers when they add more digits. 


Charles Phillips
Spaceflight Research, LLC
Houston, Texas
713-882-4578
sites.google.com/site/spaceflightresearchprojects/
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Received on Thu May 02 2019 - 11:29:56 UTC

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