Even more debris

It looks as if CBERS-1 (NORAD 25940, 1999-057A) or the associated
rocket stage has also broken up. Objects through 99057 PB are now
cataloged. Details as yet unclear. News at 11.

Pehaps a victim of the earlier ASAT debris?

On 12 Mar 2007 11:37:24 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Allen
Thomson" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:


It looks as if CBERS-1 (NORAD 25940, 1999-057A) or the associated
rocket stage has also broken up. Objects through 99057 PB are now
cataloged. Details as yet unclear. News at 11.

Pehaps a victim of the earlier ASAT debris?

And so it (the cascade) begins? This is really awful news.

Coming up with a cleanup technique seems worthy of a prize, to me. Or
perhaps a bounty on each piece taken out of orbit.

On Mar 12, 1:55 pm, (Rand Simberg)
wrote:


And so it (the cascade) begins? This is really awful news.

I sincerely hope that this is not things tipping over into a run-away
positive feedback state, but a fair amount of anxiety seems warranted
at the moment.

FWIW, CBERS-1 was in a 773 x 781 km, 98.2° orbit, Feng Yun 1C close
to that at 884 x 852 km, 98.7°

On 12 Mar 2007 13:03:37 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Allen
Thomson" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

On Mar 12, 1:55 pm, (Rand Simberg)
wrote:


And so it (the cascade) begins? This is really awful news.

I sincerely hope that this is not things tipping over into a run-away
positive feedback state, but a fair amount of anxiety seems warranted
at the moment.

FWIW, CBERS-1 was in a 773 x 781 km, 98.2° orbit, Feng Yun 1C close
to that at 884 x 852 km, 98.7°

Do you have anything linkable about this?

On Mar 12, 3:09 pm, (Rand Simberg)
wrote:

Do you have anything linkable about this?

I looked up the elsets at the Space Track site in response to a query
on SeeSat-L (http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Mar-2007/0106.html).
Because of the usage restrictions on Space Track, I'm not sure I can
say much more based on them. Though (hint, hint) if you can get them
through your own account you should look at the epoch, mean motion and
orbit number fields, do some arithmetic.

A SeeSat responder questions the Space Command identification of at
least some of the pieces (http://www.satobs.org/seesat/
Mar-2007/0110.html) but not, a least yet, that there was a CBERS
breakup.

More at 11.

Late breaking news: This may be a non-event, in which case I'll have
to be a little sheepish about not have checked it well enough before
posting:

==================

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Mar-2007/0111.html

"Five months after the CBERS 1 launch the CZ-4B 3rd stage fragmented.
More than 300 pieces were tracked. Already 143 have decayed. With the
new 14 pieces there are now 337 pieces.

"As the CBERS-1 is in orbit with the same inclination as Feng Yun 1C
was (98 degrees) it is quite well possible that these new fragments
were discovered while observing FengYun pieces. The fragments are in
orbits between 408 and 836 km."

On 12 Mar 2007 13:40:25 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Allen
Thomson" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:


Late breaking news: This may be a non-event, in which case I'll have
to be a little sheepish about not have checked it well enough before
posting:

Hey, happens in the best of families.

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Mar-2007/0111.html

"Five months after the CBERS 1 launch the CZ-4B 3rd stage fragmented.
More than 300 pieces were tracked. Already 143 have decayed. With the
new 14 pieces there are now 337 pieces.

"As the CBERS-1 is in orbit with the same inclination as Feng Yun 1C
was (98 degrees) it is quite well possible that these new fragments
were discovered while observing FengYun pieces. The fragments are in
orbits between 408 and 836 km."

Actually, I just got an email from Nick Johnson to that effect. If he
allows me to quote it without jumping through PAO hoops, I will.