[Neocp_artsats] A11bP7G = ZTs0276, two other artsats now on NEOCP

Bill Gray pluto at projectpluto.com
Fri Sep 27 22:01:58 EDT 2024


Hi folks,

    A11bP7G,  currently on NEOCP,  links to ZTs0297,  which was on NEOCP 
almost a month ago.  The latter was removed as "unconfirmed".  At the 
time,  I kinda thought it might be junk,  but heliocentric orbits fit 
well enough to leave the matter undecided.  With the addition of 
A11bP7G,  it's decided.

    A11bHPt is clear,  no-question-about-it junk,  but there hasn't been 
anything lately in a vaguely similar orbit.  Either it's new,  or it was 
last seen so long ago that I can't make the linkage (a common issue with 
ETBOs if they go missing more than a couple of months).

    CAVTAK2 is in a solid,  two-day orbit that is almost certainly an 
uncatalogued bit from the 1967-040 launch that carried Velas 4A and 4B 
into orbit.  This is a _very_ small (H=35) bit,  and three fragments (C, 
D, E) are lost.  No real way to know which one Catalina got.

    That's it for junk currently on NEOCP.  A11aVIq,  removed yesterday 
as 'not confirmed',  probably links to ZTs0264,  also removed as 'not 
confirmed' on September 3.  (Pretty darn confident of it,  and I've 
posted TLEs based on the linkage,  but there's some slight chance I'm 
getting fooled here.)

    Note that the tracklet from (151) for A11aVIq is 100% fact-free. 
Haven't checked closely,  but I assume they looked at the position 
predicted from NEOCP,  which lacked Earth/lunar perturbations,  and 
"found" what they expected to see.

-- Bill



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