image: Virgin Orbit |
During the first days of July, I have tried to image objects from the June 30 Virgin Orbit 'Tubular Bells' launch, that launched a number of smallsats including Brik-II, the first Dutch military satellite (see earlier posts here and here).
I so far managed to unambiguously image three objects from the launch. One of these is probably the LauncherOne upper stage, the other two must be payloads.
On July 2nd, I imaged objects A and B, A using a 2.0/135 mm and B using a 1.4/85 mm lens on the WATEC 902H2 Supreme low light level video camera. B was very faint and barely visible.
On July 4th, I unambiguously imaged objects B and H using a 2.0/135 mm lens.
Object A is relatively bright and well ahead of the other objects. It is in a somewhat lower orbit: a 418 x 504 km orbit, whereas the other objects are in a 496 x 522 km orbit. So object 2021-058A almost certainly is the LauncherOne upper stage.
Below is video of the A-object, shot on July 2nd with the 2.0/135 mm lens. The bright star top left is Polaris. I could not see the other objects (passing about 30 minutes later): for passes to the north of me, the illumination angle is less favourable than for passes to the south of me.
The B and H objects are fainter, and only visible during passes to the south of me. The video below shows them, faint but unmistakenly, during a pass in evening twilight on July 4th (sun at only 7 degrees below the horizon, so the sky background was still quite bright).
A fourth object, Object C, was possibly seen on July 2nd when I watched the pass live on screen, but I could not see it anymore when inspecting the footage afterwards.
Objects D, E, F and G were not seen, but on all imaged passes observing conditions were not perfect (on July 2, cirrus clouds were invading the FOV around the time of the objects D, E, F and G passing; while on July 4th the sky background was still very bright).
It is not clear which object is which at the moment, although I have reasons to believe that Brik-II must be either object D, E or F. I have some suspicion that objects B and H are part of STP27-VPA. [edit: see updates below: Object H was, but B is not).
UPDATE:
I obtained even better imagery of the two STORK objects (B and C) on July 17:
UPDATE 14 Jul 2021:
Object B actually appears to be one of the STORK satellites, based on Dopplerfitting of radiosignals received at 401.1 MHz (and first detected by Alicja Musial in Poland). Object C also appears to be a STORK, based on Doppler fitting of the radio signal..
Objects D and E are now listed by CSpOC as CNCE3 and CNCE1, which are part of STP27-VPA.
Objects F, G and H then are Brik-II, Gunsmoke-J and Halo-NET (the latter two are part of STP27-VPA), with not certain which is which.
UPDATE 16 Jul 2021
Object F is now identified as Brik-II. Object H (One of the two objects I imaged on July 4) is now identified as Gunsmoke-J 2.
As, from radio Doppler fitting, we know objects B and C are the STORKS (not yet identified as such by CSpOC), this means object G must be Halo-NET:
Object A LauncherOne rb
Object B Stork
Object C Stork
Object D CNCE3*
Object E CNCE1*
Object F Brik-II
Object G Halo-NET*
Object H Gunsmone-J 2*
* part of STP27-VPA
Bob Christy has pointed out that there might be a swap of the A and G designation in the future, to make the A designation a payload rather than the RB.
No comments:
Post a Comment