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Kunpeng-7, XSLC, May 13th 2013
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 10 May, 2013 07:56
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A very strange NOTAM that indicates something being launched out of XSLC on the night of May 12 (missile test?):
A0507/13 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY:
N272440E1062527-N270348E1061854 -N271521E1053214-N273614E1053838
BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL.ALL ACFT ARE PROHIBITED TO
FLY INTO THE AREA. SFC - UNL, 12 MAY 12:57 2013 UNTIL 12 MAY 13:46 2013. CREATED:
10 MAY 06:48 2013
There's another evidence that may or may not be related to this thing - report coming soon.
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#1
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 10 May, 2013 12:20
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A very strange NOTAM that indicates something being launched out of XSLC on the night of May 12 (missile test?):
A0507/13 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY:
N272440E1062527-N270348E1061854 -N271521E1053214-N273614E1053838
BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL.ALL ACFT ARE PROHIBITED TO
FLY INTO THE AREA. SFC - UNL, 12 MAY 12:57 2013 UNTIL 12 MAY 13:46 2013. CREATED:
10 MAY 06:48 2013
There's another evidence that may or may not be related to this thing - report coming soon.
OK I have seen two tweets on May 8 from two people in different places - one in Dao County in Hunan and another near Zhaotong in Yunnan - that reports that there will be a rocket launch in the next few days and that rocket debris will fall over their heads, so the local people are warned beforehand. The one from Yunnan went further and said that this is the first time that their place is being targeted as a drop zone (claimed to be the first stage). Both places lines up with the straight line that stretches from XSLC to the air closure zone indicated above.
The strange thing is that the drop zone is a mere 400 km from the launch site, has never been flown before in such a direction, and is happening at night time (~9 pm local). Missile test? Or something else.....
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#2
by
input~2
on 10 May, 2013 13:02
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A very strange NOTAM that indicates something being launched out of XSLC on the night of May 12 (missile test?):
A0507/13 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY:
N272440E1062527-N270348E1061854 -N271521E1053214-N273614E1053838
BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL.ALL ACFT ARE PROHIBITED TO
FLY INTO THE AREA. SFC - UNL, 12 MAY 12:57 2013 UNTIL 12 MAY 13:46 2013. CREATED:
10 MAY 06:48 2013
There's another evidence that may or may not be related to this thing - report coming soon.
OK I have seen two tweets on May 8 from two people in different places - one in Dao County in Hunan and another near Zhaotong in Yunnan - that reports that there will be a rocket launch in the next few days and that rocket debris will fall over their heads, so the local people are warned beforehand. The one from Yunnan went further and said that this is the first time that their place is being targeted as a drop zone (claimed to be the first stage). Both places lines up with the straight line that stretches from XSLC to the air closure zone indicated above.
The strange thing is that the drop zone is a mere 400 km from the launch site, has never been flown before in such a direction, and is happening at night time (~9 pm local). Missile test? Or something else.....
A wild guess:
- Area around Zhaotong, Yunnan: 1st stage drop zone
- NOTAMed area: fairing drop zone
- Area in Dao county, Hunan: 2nd stage drop zone
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#3
by
input~2
on 11 May, 2013 15:32
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As of May 11, 1525UTC, NOTAM A0507/13 has been removed from the active NOTAM list well before the indicated window has lapsed (May 12, 1346UTC)
So apparently this planned launch has been delayed or cancelled...
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#4
by
input~2
on 12 May, 2013 12:34
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It's back, now on May 13
A0523/13 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY: N272440E1062527-N270348E1061854 -N271521E1053214-N273614E1053838 BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL.ALL ACFT ARE PROHIBITED TO FLY INTO THE AREA. SFC - UNL, 13 MAY 12:47 2013 UNTIL 13 MAY 13:36 2013. CREATED: 12 MAY 11:34 2013
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#5
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 13 May, 2013 12:31
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It's back, now on May 13
A0523/13 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY: N272440E1062527-N270348E1061854 -N271521E1053214-N273614E1053838 BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL.ALL ACFT ARE PROHIBITED TO FLY INTO THE AREA. SFC - UNL, 13 MAY 12:47 2013 UNTIL 13 MAY 13:36 2013. CREATED: 12 MAY 11:34 2013
People being chased off their houses right now.....
It would be absolutely weird if a
missile launch would require evacuating towns and villages in several different spots, but I have no explanation on what on earth is that thing being launched right now (doubt it's aimed towards orbit though).
Expect UFO reports soon.....
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#6
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 13 May, 2013 13:05
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#7
by
Satori
on 13 May, 2013 13:32
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Launched around 13:00 UTC - lots of observation reports ranging from Chengdu to Kunming, as well as UFOs from Chongqing all the way to Wuhan and Hainan island! 
Edit: Even more reports from places further downstream - including one in Fujian and at least 3 in Guangdong. Damn! I should have get out and look around if I can see the "purple comet tail" from Hong Kong....
This is getting really interesting!!!
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#8
by
Satori
on 13 May, 2013 13:55
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Any other informations about this launch?
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#9
by
input~2
on 13 May, 2013 14:00
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Launched around 13:00 UTC - lots of observation reports ranging from Chengdu to Kunming, as well as UFOs from Chongqing all the way to Wuhan and Hainan island!
Edit: Even more reports from places further downstream - including one in Fujian and at least 3 in Guangdong. Damn! I should have get out and look around if I can see the "purple comet tail" from Hong Kong....
I've seen reports from microbloggers located in Xichang, Xishuangbanna (Yunnan) and Shiyan (Hubei)
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#10
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 13 May, 2013 14:29
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The huge area that people seeing the rocket plume means that this thing must be rising very quickly into space - so probably a solid motor powered thingy. And it launches from Xichang. And the path it took is roughly GTO-ish.
IMHO the only reasonable explanation is that this is an ASAT test - possibly towards a real or simulated GTO target. Let's see if there are new debris spreading around over the next few days (or even a flash saw by others east of China).....
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#11
by
input~2
on 13 May, 2013 14:33
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#12
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 13 May, 2013 15:55
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#13
by
input~2
on 13 May, 2013 18:28
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Some sources in Sichuan report a launch time of 1258UTC
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#14
by
jcm
on 13 May, 2013 19:08
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So from the map above one might expect reports from Taiwan too - and even negative ones would have significance
Also, worth noting no TLEs for any new launch as of 1900 UTC, but this is not dispositive as it often takes them longer to process a 'new foreign launch' of this kind. Also, no new debris listings, but that would probably only show up days later.
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#15
by
Phillip Clark
on 13 May, 2013 22:32
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I have to pose the question: if this launch is "Dongneng-2" then what was Dongneng-1? And what does this name translate as please?
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#16
by
ChileVerde
on 13 May, 2013 23:29
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I have to pose the question: if this launch is "Dongneng-2" then what was Dongneng-1? And what does this name translate as please?
Wikipedia says the name is 动能2 and Google Translate says 动能 means "kinetic energy." One might speculate that -1 was the 2007 version.
FWIW and YMMV.
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#17
by
Lar
on 14 May, 2013 00:56
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I'd really like to not see any more ASAT tests, it's already been established that messes can be made, and each one makes things worse. If this is what the Chinese are doing... why?
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#18
by
luhai167
on 14 May, 2013 06:31
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#19
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 14 May, 2013 06:44
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