[Neocp_artsats] A10xMaE = Chang'e 2 booster = 2010-050B

Bill Gray pluto at projectpluto.com
Thu Jun 3 10:08:53 EDT 2021


    I messed up here,  which is why this object ended up
on NEOCP.  I'd updated the TLEs in mid-April.  But the
object is coming in to a fairly close perigee;  as it
does so,  the small errors in mean anomaly started to
get magnified.  So Sat_ID didn't identify A10xMaE.

    I've posted updated TLEs,  including the A10xMaE
observations,  so we should be good for the rest of the
current apparition.

    The Chang'e 2 booster is approaching the end of a long
career of being a recurrent nuisance.  It's appeared on
NEOCP dozens of times over eleven years.  It will soon
pass perigee and head out to the earth-sun L1 point,  and
then return for a final perigee on July 20,  passing through
the earth's shadow as it does so.  It will then go back to
the L1 point,  pause briefly,  and emerge on the other side
into an heliocentric orbit.

    It will then return in early 2034,  having made about
fourteen orbits while we've made thirteen.  It looks as if
it'll pass us inside our orbit,  where we won't be able to
see it.  But I am very much hoping to get somebody to
observe it on the July 20 perigee,  ideally without it
being on NEOCP for a final time.  (The current uncertainties
are large enough,  though,  that we might _not_ ID it
automatically on July 20.)

-- Bill




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