In article , Skywise wrote:

That sounds like a NOSS trio. I've seen those.

The most amazing thing I've seen was one of the USA series
spy sats, USA 32 I think it was. Thing looked like it could
have been Pink Floyds mirror ball up there the way it was
sparkling. I'm sure the conspiracy nutz would have had a
field day with that observation.

Brian

From what I have read of the spy sats, I got the impression that at
least one of these tethered ones fell into that catagory. The night that
I spotted it, I had been watching for the ISS, and the shuttle which had
not yet linked up. I guess I had missed the ISS, but thought that I was
looking at that pair until I noticed a third sat travelling rel. to a pair
that I thought was the ISS/shuttle. So, whatever it was, was tracking in
an orbit very close to the ISS's, delayed by about 3 minutes. I've never
been able to spot it since, although I kept a note of the obs. data here
somewhere..

d.