[Neocp_artsats] C6ZAK42 = UR29394

Bill Gray pluto at projectpluto.com
Thu Jan 6 08:15:23 EST 2022


    At first,  I thought I'd simply messed up here.  The elements look 
very much like those for 1969-046F = NORAD 03956 Vela 5 booster.  In 
which case my code really ought to have identified it and it never 
should have troubled NEOCP.

    However,  C6ZAK42 is actually an uncatalogued,  much smaller object 
that presumably fell off of 1969-046F.  It was also seen in 2013 :

https://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/mpecs/ur29.htm

    The overall shape of the orbits (eccentricity,  perigee, 
inclination,  ascending node,  longitude of perigee) are _very_ similar 
at both epochs.  But C6ZAK42 = UR29394 has drifted about 180 degrees 
from the booster and is about 3.5 magnitudes fainter.

-- Bill




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