The identification of the 64 satellites launched by SpaceX SSO-A mission on December 3, 2018 continues. As noted last week, the concensus is that the spacing between unidentified satellites is STILL not to a point where positive identification is possible. In the past, two weeks after launch has been the time when distance between cubesats increases enough to identify most individual satellites. But, this time, we must wait for more separation.
There are no major changes to the previous AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution (Thursday, December 20, 2018) for the IDENTIFIED SSO-A launch objects at this time except for the following comments:
(1) There is a disagreement between this week's TLE distribution (Thursday, December 27, 2018) and the Space-Track data of the same date. Space-Track shows PWSat 2 as OBJECT 43814, but detailed doppler analysis suggests that PWSat 2 is object 43775 or 43779. Hopefully this will be resolved in the coming week. In the mean time, all three objects 43775, 43779, and 43814 are included in this week's distribution with PWSat 2 shown as CAT ID 43775.
(2) Space-Track has decided that OBJECT 43769 is now FLOCK 3S 1 (a commercial satellite). OBJECT 43769 was the object that we had used last week for AO 95. So, we are now going to use OBJECT 43771 for AO-95. OBJECT 43771 is the other object we think may be AO-95. Remember these objects are still too close together so we must wait for more separation. Patience!
(3) Also we are still awaiting greater separation for JO 97 (ex JY1Sat). JO-97 is shown as OBJECT 43803 but may be 43801. The downlink is 145.839085 MHz.
(4) The following objects have been identified as non-amateur radio satellites and have been removed from this week's distribution: EXCITE - CAT ID 43758 (identified by Space-Track, non-amateur) KAZSTSAT - CAT ID 43783 (identified by Space-Track, non-amateur) FLOCK 3S 3 - NORAD CAT ID 43788 (identified by Space-Track, non-amateur) FLOCK 3S 2 - NORAD CAT ID 43821 (identified by Space-Track, non-amateur)
Thanks to Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, and Alan Biddle, WA4SCA, for this week's update details.