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#320
by
nooneofconsequence
on 23 May, 2010 00:33
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#321
by
Stephan
on 23 May, 2010 08:21
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#322
by
Jester
on 23 May, 2010 09:24
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#323
by
saturnsky
on 23 May, 2010 15:05
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Nice of the NYT to provide orbital info....I hope the Chinese ASAT system is down!!!!!!
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#324
by
ugordan
on 23 May, 2010 15:20
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I hope the Chinese ASAT system is down!!!!!!
That's a joke, right?
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#325
by
Skyrocket
on 23 May, 2010 16:30
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Nice of the NYT to provide orbital info....I hope the Chinese ASAT system is down!!!!!!
It is silly to assume, that if amateur satellite spotters can identify a satellite, that other countries like China have not these capabilities.
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#326
by
Blackstar
on 23 May, 2010 21:43
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It is silly to assume, that if amateur satellite spotters can identify a satellite, that other countries like China have not these capabilities.
Many years ago a former US intelligence official noted the same thing. He added that such capabilities were available to even relatively poor and geographically small countries: all they really needed to do was to train some of their foreign embassy staff around the world to do this kind of stuff. You don't need expensive radars or equipment more sophisticated than binoculars. They could put observers in a number of geographically dispersed countries and gather up the data. That said, it's probably not sufficiently precise for targeting a weapon.
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#327
by
WHAP
on 24 May, 2010 02:49
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Nice of the NYT to provide orbital info....I hope the Chinese ASAT system is down!!!!!!
It is silly to assume, that if amateur satellite spotters can identify a satellite, that other countries like China have not these capabilities.
Who do you think is making that assumption? Just because other countries have the capability to find spacecraft in orbit doesn't mean the US government should hand out orbital information. A motivated country could probably find X-37 in less than a month, but that still requires expending resources, and potentially provides the vehicle the opportunity to accomplish some of its mission while no one is watching.
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#328
by
edkyle99
on 24 May, 2010 04:36
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Who do you think is making that assumption? Just because other countries have the capability to find spacecraft in orbit doesn't mean the US government should hand out orbital information. A motivated country could probably find X-37 in less than a month, but that still requires expending resources, and potentially provides the vehicle the opportunity to accomplish some of its mission while no one is watching.
Any country able to represent a perceived threat to orbital assets is going to have some type of orbit tracking radar system. With that, it would not take a month to find a satellite and its orbit. It would take a few hours. Iran and North Korea, etc., knew where X-37B was a long time ago - long before the U.S. population who paid for the thing.
- Ed Kyle
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#329
by
ugordan
on 24 May, 2010 07:49
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Nice of the NYT to provide orbital info....I hope the Chinese ASAT system is down!!!!!!
It is silly to assume, that if amateur satellite spotters can identify a satellite, that other countries like China have not these capabilities.
Who do you think is making that assumption?
What I'm taking away from saturnsky's comment is that he thinks
1) China is unable to track satellites on their own and would need amateur observers to do so.
2) China would actually be willing to make an international incident by shooting another country's bird down.
Both of those are unrealistic assumptions IMO.
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#330
by
Blackstar
on 24 May, 2010 12:06
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Who do you think is making that assumption? Just because other countries have the capability to find spacecraft in orbit doesn't mean the US government should hand out orbital information.
Let's be precise: "the US government" is not handing out orbital information. But that's not what is being discussed.
And as an aside, there actually is reason to "hand out" orbital information--to avoid collisions, for example.
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#331
by
WHAP
on 24 May, 2010 12:45
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Who do you think is making that assumption? Just because other countries have the capability to find spacecraft in orbit doesn't mean the US government should hand out orbital information.
Let's be precise: "the US government" is not handing out orbital information. But that's not what is being discussed.
My inference from a number of posts is that some folks here don't like the fact that orbital information wasn't provided. So I believe it
is being discussed.
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#332
by
Blackstar
on 24 May, 2010 13:15
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My inference from a number of posts is that some folks here don't like the fact that orbital information wasn't provided. So I believe it is being discussed.
Well, okay then. The US government does provide information on the orbits of numerous satellites, including NASA satellites and commercial ones. Do you believe that they should not do this? What is your basis for your conclusions?
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#333
by
WHAP
on 24 May, 2010 17:46
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I was only responding to the previous comments that I took to be related to X-37. If the US government decides not to release orbital information for a specific satellite, I'm OK with that.
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#334
by
Antares
on 24 May, 2010 18:46
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But then they wouldn't know which way to point their tin foil hats to keep the SIGINT out.
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#335
by
edkyle99
on 25 May, 2010 01:04
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Pieces of a big payload fairing washed ashore at Hilton Head.
http://www.wtoc.com/global/story.asp?s=12534303Locals said it looked like an Ariane fairing, but I'm wondering if it isn't the fairing from the X-37B Atlas - which is also essentially an Ariane 5 fairing. The Ariane 5 fairing would have had to travel more than 4,000 km in three days.
- Ed Kyle
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#336
by
Antares
on 25 May, 2010 05:41
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Edit: click on the video on that link. Definitively Ariane.
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#337
by
jacqmans
on 25 May, 2010 08:29
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Space Weather News for May 25, 2010
http://spaceweather.comX-37B SIGHTINGS: Amateur satellite watchers have spotted a US Air Force space plane similar in appearance to NASA's space shuttle circling Earth in a heretofore secret orbit. Known as the "X-37B," it can be seen in the night sky shining about as brightly as the stars of the Big Dipper. Flyby predictions and more information may be found at
http://spaceweather.com .
Would you like to turn your iPhone into an X-37B tracker? There's an app for that:
http://simpleflybys.com .
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#338
by
kevin-rf
on 25 May, 2010 12:50
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I got a good chuckle seeing the spaceweather.com (a NASA web site) alert in my email inbox this morning... Classic one hand of government not knowing what the other is doing
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#339
by
edkyle99
on 25 May, 2010 13:41
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Edit: click on the video on that link. Definitively Ariane.
Contraves makes both the 5.4 meter Atlas V and Ariane 5 fairings. They are essentially the same. The most recent Ariane launch took place only one day before this piece washed up on shore more than 4,200 km (2,269 nautical miles) from Kourou. Could it have traveled an average of more than 175 km per hour during that time? I'm having trouble believing it.
Here's a reminder of what the AV-012 fairing looked like.
- Ed Kyle
