Monday, 20 June 2022

A covert launch on June 19? [UPDATED]

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  click map to enlarge On 19 June 2022 at 4:27 UT, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral pad 40 ostensibly carrying a Globalstar b...
Thursday, 16 June 2022

Some personal news: Lecturer in optical Space Situational Awareness

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I have some personal news to report.  As of June 1, I have been appointed as Lecturer in optical Space Situational Awareness at Delft Tech...
Saturday, 21 May 2022

Observing the Boeing CST-100 Starliner OFT-2 and the ISS just hours before docking.

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  click image to enlarge The image above shows the International Space Station ISS (the brightest trail) beying chased by the Boeing CST-1...
Wednesday, 18 May 2022

Kosmos 482: questions around a failed Venera lander from 1972 still orbiting Earth (but not for long)

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I have just published a new article in The Space Review . It is freely accessible here . It is titled " Kosmos 482: questions around...
Wednesday, 20 April 2022

USA 327 / NROL-85

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​ The video above which I shot yesterday evening (19 April 2022) shows USA 327 , the NROL-85 payload , passing over my home in Leiden, sligh...

A surprisingly bright flare from a 6U Cubesat

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​The 240 frames frame stack above, which is from the video below, shows the classified Japanese satellite IGS Optical 5 (2015-015A). But at...
Monday, 18 April 2022

NROL-85 observed, but is it an INTRUDER/NOSS or something else? [UPDATED]

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click image to enlarge   Yesterday 17 April 2022 at 13:13 UT, SpaceX launched the classified NROL-85 mission for the NRO . Before the laun...
Tuesday, 12 April 2022

NROL-85: probably NOSS 3-9, a new pair of INTRUDER Naval SIGINT satellites

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  image: Wikipedia  EDIT (15 & 16 Apr):   the launch of NROL-85 has been postponed by at least two days, 'due to technical difficu...
3 comments:
Friday, 25 March 2022

North Korea's Hwasong-17 ICBM: capable of (briefly) bringing warheads into orbit?

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image: KCNA/RodongSinmun According to multiple western sources and North Korea , North Korea conducted a first full-power test-flight of its...
3 comments:
Wednesday, 9 February 2022

This week: rainshowers with a slight chance of falling satellites

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The spectacular image above is a frame from video footage obtained by cameras at Añasco, Puerto Rico, part of a cameranetwork from the Soci...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 2 February 2022

The upcoming classified NROL-87 launch

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click map to enlarge   If weather cooperates, SpaceX will launch a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office ( NRO ) on ...

The North Korean Hwasong-12 test of 29 January 2022

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click to enlarge   On 29 January 2022 at 22:52 UT (30 January 2022, 7:52 local time in North Korea), North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-12 I...
Friday, 3 December 2021

Some first analytical results on the debris from the Russian ASAT test of 15 November 2021

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  click image to enlarge   In my previous post I discussed the November 15 Anti-Satellite (ASAT) test on the defunct Kosmos 1408 satellite...
3 comments: