SBIRS GEO 3 Observed

From: Scott Tilley via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 19:48:09 -0800
Hi All

SBIRS GEO 3 was observed as it approached perigee this evening.  No 
indication of a major orbital maneuver since launch and insertion into 
GTO.  The orbit closely resembles that posted here prior to launch.

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2017/0096.html

41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021603418 27 25 0242764+002093 17 R
41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021613558 27 25 0244447+001447 17 R
41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021747561 27 25 0300915-005343 17 R
41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021755478 27 25 0302426-010004 17 R
41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021805618 27 25 0304282-010798 17 R
41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021814486 27 25 0306037-011543 17 R
41937 17 524A   8049 G 20170124021824626 27 25 0307948-012359 17 R

SBIRS GEO 3
1 41937U          17021.04791667  .00000000  00000-0 00000-0 0    08
2 41937  23.2890 317.4457 7257357 178.4282 259.7950 2.37291095    04
# 20170124.09-20170124.10, 7 measurements, 0.006 deg rms

The space craft exhibits extreme brightness variations. However, my 
visual observations were too short to establish a pattern based on 
visual observation alone.

As this is a A2100 bus it will likely exhibit brightness variations 
similar to those of MUOS-5 while in GTO which may help others pick it up 
as there could be many minutes of invisibility before a peak.  
Observations by other means suggest this is the case.

Regards,
Scott Tilley

ROBERTS CREEK 1:
8049 ST 49.4348 -123.6685 40. Scott Tilley
ROBERTS CREEK 2:
8048 ST 49.4175 -123.6420 1. Scott Tilley

Keep tabs on COSPAR 8049 on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/coastal8049?lang=en



_______________________________________________
Seesat-l mailing list
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
Received on Mon Jan 23 2017 - 21:48:56 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Jan 24 2017 - 03:48:56 UTC