Rocket?

Previous night at Apr 19, 00:32 UT I saw a strange object flying from
between Deneb and Vega to some degrees west of Altair. It was two
lightpoints of magnitude ~+9 separated by ~6'. The lightpoints were
connected by a grey string. It was flying at about satellite speed. My
first thought was that it was some kind of satellite experiment going
up there but now I think it could be a rocket with the last stage
discoupled. It was real cool to see!

Roger Persson
(Latitude=+57.7 East longitude=+12.5)

(Roger Persson) wrote in
om:

Previous night at Apr 19, 00:32 UT I saw a strange object flying from
between Deneb and Vega to some degrees west of Altair. It was two
lightpoints of magnitude ~+9 separated by ~6'. The lightpoints were
connected by a grey string. It was flying at about satellite speed. My
first thought was that it was some kind of satellite experiment going
up there but now I think it could be a rocket with the last stage
discoupled. It was real cool to see!

Roger Persson
(Latitude=+57.7 East longitude=+12.5)


Sounds like TiPS, "Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment".

See http://www.heavens-above.com/satinfo.asp?SatID=23937

Brian

(Roger Persson) wrote in
om:

Previous night at Apr 19, 00:32 UT I saw a strange object flying from
between Deneb and Vega to some degrees west of Altair. It was two
lightpoints of magnitude ~+9 separated by ~6'. The lightpoints were
connected by a grey string. It was flying at about satellite speed. My
first thought was that it was some kind of satellite experiment going
up there but now I think it could be a rocket with the last stage
discoupled. It was real cool to see!

Roger Persson
(Latitude=+57.7 East longitude=+12.5)


Sounds like TiPS, "Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment".

See http://www.heavens-above.com/satinfo.asp?SatID=23937

Brian

Hi Brian,
You're right I saw TiPS! The Heavens Above site gave me the correct
path and time for a pass. This thing was really cool to observe!
Thanks!

Roger Persson

(Roger Persson) wrote in

Previous night at Apr 19, 00:32 UT I saw a strange object flying from
between Deneb and Vega to some degrees west of Altair. It was two
lightpoints of magnitude ~+9 separated by ~6'. The lightpoints were
connected by a grey string. It was flying at about satellite speed. My

Sounds like TiPS, "Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment".

Brian

Hi Brian,
You're right I saw TiPS! The Heavens Above site gave me the correct
path and time for a pass. This thing was really cool to observe!
Thanks!

Roger Persson

(Roger Persson) wrote in

Previous night at Apr 19, 00:32 UT I saw a strange object flying from
between Deneb and Vega to some degrees west of Altair. It was two
lightpoints of magnitude ~+9 separated by ~6'. The lightpoints were
connected by a grey string. It was flying at about satellite speed. My

Sounds like TiPS, "Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment".

Brian

You're right I saw TiPS! The Heavens Above site gave me the correct
path and time for a pass. This thing was really cool to observe!

It is really neat! I've had the good fortune to see it in an 8-inch
(20 cm) scope at about 45x. I have managed to see it once as a
fuzzy spot, plus two or three flashes from the end masses, with my
8x42 binoculars.

Of course the illustration on the Heavens-Above page is not to
scale. This page has some photographic images of it in orbit, at
the foot of the page:

http://www.mos.org/whats_happening/s...um-shuttle.php

Here's an official US Navy page about it:

http://code8200.nrl.navy.mil/tips.html

Ed Cannon - - Austin, Texas, USA
(Remove "donotspam".)

You're right I saw TiPS! The Heavens Above site gave me the correct
path and time for a pass. This thing was really cool to observe!

It is really neat! I've had the good fortune to see it in an 8-inch
(20 cm) scope at about 45x. I have managed to see it once as a
fuzzy spot, plus two or three flashes from the end masses, with my
8x42 binoculars.

Of course the illustration on the Heavens-Above page is not to
scale. This page has some photographic images of it in orbit, at
the foot of the page:

http://www.mos.org/whats_happening/s...um-shuttle.php

Here's an official US Navy page about it:

http://code8200.nrl.navy.mil/tips.html

Ed Cannon - - Austin, Texas, USA
(Remove "donotspam".)