The AMSAT KEPs are early this week because I will be out of town on the normal Thursday distribution day. Next week we will be back to the Thursday evening schedule.
The identification of the satellites launched 10-28-11 continues. Simply put, we don't have enough separation to make a positive identification.
Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, has been analyzing various aspects of the satellite group (grouping, radar cross section, and order of launch from rocket body). He concludes that we need more time and separation to be sure. Nico's best educated guess at this time is as follows:
Explorer 1 Prime is Object G, Cat # 37855 Aubiesat (AO-71) and M-cubed, are in the same group as Objects E and F The two DICE satellites (commercial, non amateur) are Objects C and D RAX2 is Object B, Cat # 37850 Nico reminds us that this is a best guess and only time will tell who is who.
Thanks Nico for sharing your thoughts with us. As Sherlock Holmes would say, "Well done, Watson."
Here are this weeks KEPs for our perplexing flock: OBJECTB 1 37850U 11061B 11314.31682443 .00000489 00000-0 51357-4 0 00169 2 37850 101.7053 249.9601 0255846 255.5306 101.7516 14.77614148001891 OBJECTC 1 37851U 11061C 11317.83772545 .00009599 00000-0 78565-3 0 00253 2 37851 101.7037 255.0640 0254660 246.5170 110.9070 14.77729084002420 OBJECTD 1 37852U 11061D 11318.85323228 .00010618 00000-0 86612-3 0 174 2 37852 101.7048 256.5342 0254778 243.6020 113.8822 14.77773735 2564 OBJECTE 1 37853U 11061E 11317.83714479 .00010430 00000-0 85168-3 0 00441 2 37853 101.6978 255.0557 0254457 246.6876 110.7358 14.77795553002421 OBJECTF 1 37854U 11061F 11318.51214050 .00011655 00000-0 93205-3 0 203 2 37854 101.7001 256.0511 0257496 245.1384 112.2875 14.78001563 2507 OBJECTG 1 37855U 11061G 11318.85081525 .00010458 00000-0 84381-3 0 171 2 37855 101.7008 256.5373 0255959 243.3435 114.1347 14.77981238 2550