[Neocp_artsats] Three artsats now on NEOCP
Bill Gray
pluto at projectpluto.com
Wed Aug 28 11:21:30 EDT 2024
Just FYI :
- A11acbV is the “secret” Chinese artsat 2024-048A in a distant
retrograde orbit (DRO) around the moon. It always has a low elongation
from the moon. It was only about 15 degrees from the moon when ATLAS
got it. We haven’t known where it was, which is why Sat_ID didn’t get
it. I still don’t have good enough ephems for it, so I won’t be at all
surprised if it shows up again… I’m hoping more observations get made.
(Which will be difficult; it’s headed for solar conjunction.)
The (G19) observations for the object are spurious. I suspect they
looked where NEOCP told them to (with perturbation omitted) and saw what
they expected to see.
- A11a0Ff is the booster for the same mission, in a 2.2-day geocentric
orbit. This has been hitting some atmospheric drag, such that it was
way the heck away from where I’d predicted it would be. I’ve fixed
that. I have it still under the first ATLAS designation, A116CgX; I
should probably re-designate it to the "official" 2024-048B.
(Space-Track lost this object early in the game.)
- A119QDa is a “traditional” ETBO in a one-day orbit, with two previous
tracklets from ATLAS. I’d been unable to make the linkage before; with
A119QDa added in, it became obvious.
-- Bill
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