Subject: Uncatalogued geosynchronous satellites tracked From: thomsona@netcom.com (Allen Thomson) Date: 1996/02/04 Message-Id: <thomsonaDM9toK.9qL@netcom.com> Newsgroups: sci.space.policy,sci.space.tech,sci.astro.amateur,alt.poliitcs.org.cia There has been an interesting development in the world of the amateur satellite observers -- the first (AFAIK) detection of uncatalogued geosynchronous satellites and determination of their orbital elements. The amateur community has for many years spotted and tracked classified US LEO satellites for which NORAD does not release elements, but the capability now seems to extend to GEO. The amateurs' accomplishments are of continuing interest because, inter alia, they provide a proof of principle and lower bound to the capabilities other countries' space surveillance systems could achieve with minimum investment. Here are orbital elements for two uncatalogued satellites found by Rainer Kracht (R.Kracht@t-online.de) in Germany during 1995 and tracked through the present. The GEO names and 99xxx- series "catalogue numbers" are apparently arbitrary. Rainer believes that GEO347 may be a Chalet/Vortex SIGINT satellite, but I don't know what leads him to this conclusion. GEO331 3.5 1 99331U 95 93.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 03 2 99331 1.3358 335.6692 0130704 184.8013 1.9614 1.00269021 03 GEO331 3.5 1 99331U 95112.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 05 2 99331 1.3493 336.9275 0131224 180.5496 23.3542 1.00264063 09 GEO331 3.5 1 99331U 95117.00000000 -.00000023 00000-0 -19153+4 0 00 2 99331 1.3377 337.3238 0130554 183.4118 24.9843 1.00262606 04 GEO331 3.5 1 99331U 95142.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 08 2 99331 1.3296 339.1626 0128572 183.9900 47.3694 1.00274883 09 GEO331 3.5 1 99331U 95206.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 09 2 99331 1.3040 344.8005 0130824 178.2483 110.5289 1.00276472 05 GEO331 3.5 1 99331U 95231.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 07 2 99331 1.2751 347.9916 0142671 177.6475 133.1575 1.00289806 09 GEO331 3.2 1 99331U 95292.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 04 2 99331 1.2646 349.8223 0133360 178.4036 190.7062 1.00276339 08 GEO331 3.3 1 99331U 96 21.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 05 2 99331 1.2788 359.3802 0136604 171.5578 281.2322 1.00269488 05 GEO347 2.8 1 99347U 95115.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 01 2 99000 8.4245 332.5874 1447805 255.0863 331.7754 1.00269825 06 GEO347 2.8 1 99347U 95117.00000000 .00000203 00000-0 13322+5 0 08 2 99347 8.4175 332.5779 1453571 255.2972 333.6177 1.00269547 07 GEO347 2.8 1 99347U 95121.00000000 .00000070 00000-0 45986+4 0 05 2 99347 8.4026 332.5384 1450177 255.4149 337.4567 1.00271424 03 GEO347 2.8 1 99347U 95147.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 00 2 99347 8.3900 332.3460 1449248 256.1562 2.6782 1.00270400 03 GEO347 3.0 1 99347U 95207.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 07 2 99347 8.3432 332.3042 1442127 257.2518 60.9185 1.00269123 05 GEO347 3.0 1 99347U 95210.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 01 2 99347 8.3391 332.2823 1443420 257.2696 63.8608 1.00270215 05 GEO347 3.0 1 99347U 95265.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 01 2 99347 8.2811 331.8258 1446848 258.4393 117.4767 1.00271834 02 GEO347 3.0 1 99347U 95295.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 04 2 99347 8.2635 331.5450 1455699 259.4275 146.3737 1.00269522 00 GEO347 3.1 1 99347U 96 13.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 03 2 99347 8.1966 331.1478 1458070 262.6442 224.9953 1.00268162 02