Thursday, 25 May 2017

Updating the changing tumble period of the USA 144 decoy

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click diagram to enlarge The diagram above shows the brightness variation of 1999-028C, the USA 144 decoy , as determined on 21 May 2017...
Saturday, 29 April 2017

What is NROL-76 and what orbit wil it be launched into?

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Tomorrow, 30 April 2017, with (from the area warnings) a three-hour launch window starting at 10:55 UT, SpaceX will launch a classified sate...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 5 April 2017

VIDEO: the ISS Fabric Shield (again), and North Korea's Kwangmyongsong-4

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Yesterday I posted April 3 photographic imagery of the ISS Fabric Shield (1998-067 LF), a 1.5 x 0.6 meter anti-micrometeoroid shield a...
Monday, 3 April 2017

The ISS Fabric Shield accidentally released from the ISS imaged in orbit

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On March 30, 2017, NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson conducted an EVA from the International Space Station to prepare a ne...
Thursday, 23 March 2017

NOSS 3-8 (NROL-79) components now close to operational separation

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In a recent blog post I documented the intricate manoeuvering of the two NROL-79 payloads ( NOSS 3-8 ) over the past three weeks. They wer...
Sunday, 19 March 2017

NOSS 3-8 (NROL-79): Dancing in the Dark

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click image to enlarge The image above shows the new NOSS 3-8 duo (2017-011 A & B, launched as NROL-79 on March 1, see my earlie...
2 comments:
Thursday, 16 March 2017

USA 186 recovered

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click to enlarge The image above shows USA 186 (2005-042A), a KH-11 ADVANCED CRYSTAL ("Keyhole") optical reconnaissance sat...
Friday, 3 March 2017

Tracking NROL-79, a new NOSS duo

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Launch of NROL-79 from Vandenberg on March 1, 17:49 UT (photo ULA) On March 1, 2017, at 17:50 UT,  an Atlas V rocket was launched from ...
Thursday, 8 December 2016

OT: the slow, 13.8 second duration earthgrazing fireball over the Netherlands of 28 Nov 2016, 04:40 UT

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the long duration (13.8 s) fireball of 28 Nov 2016, 4:40 UT  image (c) Jos Nijland, Benningbroek, NL - click to enlarge In the early ...
Friday, 2 December 2016

SIGINT Galore!

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USA 136 (Trumpet 3), a TRUMPET in HEO. 28 Nov 2016 click to enlarge The evening of 28 November was very clear - no moon and an extrem...
Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Reshaping this blog

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Yes, this is still the same blog , but it looks slightly different. The design of this blog was over 11 years old. Even though the focus o...
Friday, 11 November 2016

Chinese CZ-11 rocket stage impacts Myanmar Jade quarry (updated)

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On November 9 at 23:42 UT (November 10 in local time), China launched a Long March 11 (CZ-11) rocket from Jiuquan on a south-bound trajector...
1 comment:
Tuesday, 1 November 2016

A NEMESIS in the sky: PAN, Mentor 4 and close encounters of the SIGINT kind

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I have published an article with the above title in The Space Review . Click here to read it .
Saturday, 23 July 2016

The fabrications of Masami Kuramoto (again on MH17 and the suspect Russian MoD pictures)

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In January, I posted an analysis of images provided by the Russian MoD during a press conference in July 2014, a few days after the shootd...
Wednesday, 20 July 2016

SpaceX Dragon CRS-9 chasing the ISS in the sky

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ISS and Dragon CRS-9. Click to enlarge Last night was a clear and very warm, moonlit night (21 deg C). It was warm enough to observe in...
Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Reentry of Soyuz rocket upper stage from Progress MS-03 launch seen from New Zealand, 19 Jul 2016

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On July 19, 2016, near ~6:30 UT (~18:30 local time), a bright very slow and long-lasting fireball was reported by many people from New Zeala...
Friday, 8 July 2016

MUOS 5 stuck in GTO

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The website Spaceflight.com has broken the news that something has gone wrong with the orbit raising manoeuvres of MUOS 5 . They have ther...
Thursday, 7 July 2016

Tracking MUOS 5 in GTO [UPDATED]

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click to enlarge Over the past days, Paul Camilleri in Australia and me in the Netherlands have been tracking an object in GTO with...
Thursday, 30 June 2016

USA 224 recovered: an update of the KH-11 constellation

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Russell Eberst in Scotland has recovered the noon-plane KH-11 ADVANCED CRYSTAL/"Keyhole" optical reconnaissance satellite U...