I was recently (late March 2019) in a discussion about which Velas are lost and which aren't, and realized I'd lost track of what objects we were tracking. That prompted me to take a look through the data and compile the following table, based on Jonathan McDowell's satellite catalog : http://www.planet4589.org/space/log/satcat.txt Catalog ID Orbit Name Launch Orb per perigee apogee incl 00674 1963-039A good Vela 1A 1963 Oct 17 6486.19 101081 x 116581 x 38.71 00692 1963-039C good Vela 1B 1963 Oct 17 6519.62 101925 x 116528 x 37.82 00836 1964-040A good Vela 2A 1964 Jul 17 6018.82 101986 x 104470 x 39.20 00837 1964-040B good Vela 2B 1964 Jul 17 6002.73 94374 x 111691 x 40.68 01458 1965-058A exc Vela 3A 1965 Jul 20 6678.91 106366 x 115838 x 35.34 01459 1965-058B exc Vela 3B 1965 Jul 20 6712.67 101714 x 121281 x 34.94 02765 1967-040A exc Vela 4A 1967 Apr 28 2827.88 9193 x 110534 x 34.43 02766 1967-040B Vela 4B 1967 Apr 28 6672.73 106999 x 115059 x 32.56 03954 1969-046D good Vela 5A 1969 May 23 6706.31 110891 x 111955 x 33.13 03955 1969-046E Vela 5B 1969 May 23 6702.42 110741 x 112014 x 33.15 04366 1970-027A TLEs Vela 6A 1970 Apr 8 6711.65 111307 x 111664 x 32.26 04368 1970-027B TLEs Vela 6B 1970 Apr 8 6704.60 110828 x 111977 x 32.21 So we're up to eight objects securely tracked, with four to go. Of those remaining four, relatively recent TLEs are available for the last two. In addition to these, we have a "puzzler" object, S509559, currently unidentified. Of the eight we're tracking, five have "good" orbits, and three are "excellent". (An earlier version of this page had two "maybe" orbits where I wasn't totally sure I'd gotten things right, but we have confirmation that the orbits are right and they're now "good".) Individual pages for the eight tracked Velas, and for S509599, are linked to from https://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/mpecs/pseudo.htm The pages provide observations, orbital elements, commentary, and links to TLEs for the objects. The "good" : Vela 1A is "the new guy"; it was observed over 19 days in March. We should get more data on it sometime around May (I suspect that the surveys will stumble over it.) The orbit is currently very sound, but that won't be true in a few months unless we get more data. Vela 2B = 1964-040B is based on a couple of arcs from September. We ought to get more data on it... I think I'll put out an appeal and see if anybody will bite. It's right at the point where it'd be a challenge for medium-sized scopes, but bright enough/low enough uncertainty that it can be found. (I really should have gotten someone on this earlier, though.) Vela 5A = 1969-046D was found in January 2019, and only on two nights five days apart. It's going to need some observations this summer, but is currently good. The "excellent" : Vela 3A has lots and lots of data from 2004 to this January. We aren't gonna lose it. Similarly for 4A (data from 2013 to 2017). Vela 3B isn't in quite that category, but it's been found on four well-spaced nights from February 2017 to May 2018. The "Space-Track TLEs" objects : For these objects, we have no astrometry at all. Space-Track provided TLEs for Vela 6B for 2019 Feb 12 and 2017 June 23. (And again for April; it could be that the object can be easily recovered where Space-Track claims it is.) For Vela 6A, there are TLEs from 2015 to June 2017, and then again in February and March of this year. Even for Velas 4B and 5B, TLEs are available, though the most recent are decades old : http://www.planet4589.org/space/elements/ These may prove useful for identifying new objects (i.e., I'll compute TLEs for the new object with epochs several decades back, and see if they match the elderly TLEs.) And that leaves us with S509559. Its orbit is very Vela-like. Run back to 1969 or 1970, it could be any of the four objects not yet identified. However, TLEs generated for it don't match those provided for any Vela. So I conclude one of the following : -- Either S509559 is not actually a Vela (which I'd find hard to believe, given both current elements and its 1969 elements); -- One of the four untracked Velas is not where Space-Track thinks or thought it was.