USSTRATCOM has catalogued three objects: 2003-054A 28095 USA 173 US 2003/12/02 2003-054B 28096 ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B US 2003/12/02 2003-054C 28097 USA 173 DEB US 2003/12/02 This exactly reproduces the cataloguing of the similar launch in 2001: 2001-040A 26905 USA 160 US 2001/09/08 2001-040B 26906 ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B US 2001/09/08 2001-040C 26907 USA 160 DEB US 2001/09/08 I find it bizarre that once again, only of the two payloads has been catalogued as such. We hobbyists track three objects from both launches: the Centaur stage, and two payloads - known to be payloads because they manoeuvre. I see two possible explanations: 1. Each launch does produce one piece of debris - the C piece in the catalogue - in which case, one of the payloads has been entirely omitted from the catalogue. 2. No debris is generated, and the C piece is in fact one of the payloads, incorrectly identified as a piece of debris. Those of us who track these objects and compute their orbits, need to agree on how we will designate them. After numerous manoeuvres by the 2001 objects, which resulted in the payloads overtaking one another at least once, we ended up with the present situation, in which C is the leading payload, A is the trailing payload, and B is the Centaur. For the objects launched last week, our provisional designations have been: 2003-054A 71001 NOSS leader 2003-054B 71002 NOSS trailer 2003-054C 71003 Centaur I suggest that this time we should remind USSTRATCOM how it is supposed to be done, by adhering to the well-established convention, keeping the payloads as A and B, and the Centaur as C. I also suggest assigning modified USA numbers, as shown below, to make clear these are payloads. 2003-054A 28095 NOSS leader USA 173-A 2003-054B 28096 NOSS trailer USA 173-B 2003-054C 28097 Centaur Alternatively, we could reproduce the sequence we ended up with after the 2001 objects settled in to their present orbits. However we decide, I caution that we should not rush to swap the positions of the present leader and trailer, since they may yet repeat history and do so on their own - more than once! I believe that we can afford to take a day or two or longer to discuss the matter. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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