Rainer Kresken wrote: > I have a question: Is it possible that there are stealthy, > invisible satellites out there? A Satellite hiding behind a > clever structure of reflective surfaces > should be invisible to optical detectors (including us > seesaters)AND Radar. > I am thinking of an apex-down acute pyramid or tetrahedron. > Could this work? Are there indications that such satellites exist? The U.S. has launched at least one such satellite: USA 53 (Misty) 18.0 4.0 0.0 1.5 v 1 20516U 90019B 90299.82375579 .00000277 00000-0 11483-3 0 07 2 20516 65.0194 222.4319 0016320 301.3908 58.5348 14.26287908 00 Russell Eberst, Daniel Karcher and Pierre Neirinck discovered it in the above orbit in 1990 October, as a bright unknown, which I identified through correlation with its parking orbit of early 1990 March. Its ground track nearly repeated every 9 days. Early in 1990 November, it manoeuvred to the orbit below, observed by Russell Eberst three times during 1996-97, as a faint unknown, which I identified through correlation with its previous orbit. 1 20516U 90019B 97284.23458324 .00000027 00000-0 70436-5 0 01 2 20516 66.1631 65.2852 0005248 187.8717 231.2307 14.48751217 03 It manoeuvred to this lower orbit to create a 3 day repeating ground track. I speculate that the 1.2 deg increase in inclination was to compensate for the lower altitude, to maintain the southernmost island of Novaya Zemlya (located in the Arctic Ocean, north of the Russian mainland) within its off-nadir imaging limits. Probably, it has been de-orbited. I strongly suspect that USA 144 (99028A / 25744) is Misty 2, most likely in an orbit similar to the above. The object that we continue to call 99028A has the characteristics of debris, and I suspect it to be a decoy, as I discussed a couple of years ago: http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2002/0045.html http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2002/0075.html More about Misty: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3077830/ http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/afp-731.htm Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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