Another OIG mystery
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 03:07:59 -0600
Another object -- While I was querying OIG I thought I'd query
on #23907, which on SeeSat is NOSS 2-3 Rk (a Titan 4 predicted
by Alan Pickup to decay in early March, and usually very easy
to see on a good pass, unless the observer gets the bad side
of a tumble). OIG seems to think that it's a payload:
> Query return total: 1
> Query Date: 1999/02/15 08:28:41
>
> Satellite Object Number: Ascending Order
>
> IntID/Name CatNo Source period Incl Apogee Perigee RCS
> ------------ ----- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- --------
>
> 1996-029B 23907 US 0.0 0.0 0 0 0.0000
> USA 120 Launched (1996/05/12)
Then I looked in the SSR for all 1996-029* objects and found
these (sorted on cat. no.; from Mike McCants' format):
> 23862 96-029D USA 122 US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23863 96-029G USA 119-124 DEB US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23893 96-029A USA 119 US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23907 96-029B USA 120 US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23908 96-029C USA 121 US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23936 96-029E USA 123 US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23937 96-029F USA 124 US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23938 96-029H USA 119-124 DEB US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 23939 96-029J USA 119-124 DEB US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 25609 96-029K USA 119-124 DEB US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
> 25610 96-029L USA 119-124 DEB US 05/12/96 NO ELEMENTS AVAILABLE
23862 is NOSS 2-3 (D); 23907 is the Titan IV; 23908 is NOSS 2-3 (C);
23936 is NOSS 2-3 (E); and 23937 is TiPS. That leaves six objects,
five of them "DEB".
Well, lately they've released elements for classified objects
predicted to decay soon. If they do the same with the NOSS 2-3
Titan IV, what will its catalog number be?
Congratulations to Russell Eberst on all those observations!
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, Texas