Sunday, 12 January 2014

ISS and Orbital-1 Cygnus, 5 hours before docking

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click image to enlarge This morning near 6:56 local time (5:56 UT) I had a visible pass of the International Space Station ISS and the...
Thursday, 2 January 2014

An unknown object in (near) Geostationary orbit: Express AM-5?

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The evening of December 29 2013 started clear, so I did a small survey of a part of the geostationary belt. Main focus of the session was ...
Tuesday, 24 December 2013

Guest post at ESA's Rocket Science blog

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On request of one of the editors I have written a long guest post for ESA's Rocket Science blog titled:   " Predicting GOCE re-e...
Sunday, 22 December 2013

USA 186 (Keyhole KH-11/Advanced CRYSTAL) is moving orbit, as expected

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In a series of previous posts culminating in the October 12 summarizing post here , I scetched a scenario of what I think will happen to the...

Gaia launch event, Noordwijk SpaceExpo

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On 19 December at 9:12 UT, a Soyuz rocket with a Fregat upper stage carrying ESA's 2-tonne astrometric space telescope Gaia lifted...
Monday, 11 November 2013

GOCE re-entry photographed from the Falklands?

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This has just appeared on Twitter: @BBCAmos We saw GOCE satellite burn up over East Falkland at about 9.20pm last night. pic.twitter.com...

Alas, poor GOCE, I knew him well...

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click map to enlarge Last night just after 0h UT, GOCE , ESA's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer , died a...
Saturday, 9 November 2013

Brief update on Goce (9 Nov): one day from reentry!

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My current re-entry forecast for GOCE , made with Alan Pickup's SatAna and SatEvo software, is re-entry in a 11.3 hr window centered o...
Friday, 8 November 2013

Another brief update on #GOCE, 8 Nov 2013

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The average orbit of GOCE is now below 172 km altitude, with perigee below 170 km . It is hence approaching the critical value of 150 km. ...
Thursday, 7 November 2013

Brief GOCE update, 7 November

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This morning the average orbital altitude of GOCE had dropped to 181 km. The orbital droprate is now near 6 km per day. There is no sign ye...
Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Brief (semi-) daily GOCE update, 6 November

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GOCE 's perigee is now below 183.5 km, the average orbit has dropped to 187 km (from 227.5 km originally). The orbital droprate is now c...
Tuesday, 5 November 2013

GOCE update (5 Nov 2013)

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GOCE , ESA's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer , is still steadily coming down (see previous posts). This morni...
Sunday, 3 November 2013

GOCE below 200 km - now one week or less from reentry

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Over the past 12 days I have been covering the demise of GOCE , ESA's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer . Follow...
Thursday, 31 October 2013

About half-way: another short update on GOCE, 10 days after its engine cut off

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Ten days ago the ion engine of GOCE , the European Space Agency 's 1-tonne Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer s...
Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Tracking Prowler

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Last week I imaged Prowler again, the classified spacecraft we amateur trackers indicate with the informal Cospar code 2009-097E. The objec...
2 comments:
Tuesday, 29 October 2013

A Space Buff Watches 'Gravity'

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* WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS! * Last Wednesday the GF and I went to the cinema to see Gravity , the latest Space-themed blockbuster mo...
3 comments:
Saturday, 26 October 2013

A short update on GOCE, five days after engine cut-off

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It is now five days ago that the ion engine of GOCE , the European Space Agency 's 1-tonne Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circula...
2 comments:
Tuesday, 22 October 2013

[Updated diagrams] GOCE is falling!

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[diagrams updated 23 Oct 2013, 9:15 UT]  GOCE , The European Space Agency's 1-tonne slick Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circul...