Continuing Process of Deterimining 10-28-11 Launch Satellite Identities
The process of determining who is who from the six objects launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 10-28-11 continues.
Colin Hurst, VK5HI, has provided the following comments: "Discussions by Mike DK3WN, the University of Michigan Group, the Montana State University and to a lesser extent myself have resulted in the following. The University of Michigan are confident that Object E is RAX-2 Mike, others and I have been successfully tracking RAX_2 with Object E. The Montana State University are also confident that E1P is Object G based on their commanding success with a large dish in California. Again Mike and I are having good decoding success with Object G as E1P. According to Mike, the rest is one big TLE lottery, which is frustrating to all. 73 Colin VK5HI."
So far everyone who has weighed in on this, agrees that Object G is E1P (Explorer-1 Prime,AO-71,CAT# 37855). RAX2 is probably Object E which is CAT# 37853. Objects C (Cat# 37851)and D (CAT# 37852) are possibly two non-amateur DICE (Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment) satellites. The identities of the rest are, for now, awaiting for more data and more separation. Please remember that the process of identifying which satellite is which object is very difficult for this particular launch. I want to sincerely thank Scott Palo (University of Colorado), Nico Janssen (PA0DLO), Colin Hurst (VK5HI) and Mike (DK3WN) for sharing their expert analysis with us.
I solicit any comments or conclusions concerning the identities of our 10-28-11 satellite flock and will continue to relay those to the amateur satellite commumity. For now, here are the current KEPs for Objects B through G:
OBJECTB 1 37850U 11061B 11327.79038309 .00000500 00000-0 51357-4 0 00233 2 37850 101.7009 269.4980 0257956 218.1773 140.1204 14.77851780003883 OBJECTC 1 37851U 11061C 11327.85808021 .00006371 00000-0 52321-3 0 274 2 37851 101.7055 269.5914 0254680 217.9064 140.3957 14.77877374 3899 OBJECTD 1 37852U 11061D 11328.87325156 .00006779 00000-0 55509-3 0 263 2 37852 101.7057 271.0632 0254662 215.0654 143.3542 14.77932765 4048 OBJECTE 1 37853U 11061E 11327.85695236 .00007607 00000-0 62180-3 0 00310 2 37853 101.6980 269.5785 0254268 218.1713 140.1233 14.77968587003903 OBJECTF 1 37854U 11061F 11327.85366001 .00007569 00000-0 60980-3 0 00331 2 37854 101.7018 269.5938 0256299 217.7333 140.5647 14.78166233003885 OBJECTG 1 37855U 11061G 11328.86939989 .00007205 00000-0 58369-3 0 262 2 37855 101.7047 271.0626 0255394 214.8976 143.5248 14.78147445 4038
participants (1)
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Ray Hoad