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Tumbling bright satellite: possibly Zi Yuan 2 or Cosmos 1689 Rocket
Hello,
Does somebody know if Zi Yuan 2 or Cosmos 1689 Rocket is tumbling? Period about 6 sec (+/- 2 sec), very pronounced sequence of one bright peak and one less bright peak. Something like this? I'm asking because today we saw an unusually bright tumbling satellite and heavens-above.com shows two very similar passes by Zi Yuan 2 and the Cosmos rocket. Both fit the trajectory and are within the accuracy limits of the time we took (we did not have exact time at the moment; probably +/- 3 minutes). I'd like to see that one again. Thanks, - Alex |
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Tumbling bright satellite: possibly Zi Yuan 2 or Cosmos 1689 Rocket
On Aug 12, 6:26 am, Alexander Avtanski wrote:
Hello, Does somebody know if Zi Yuan 2 or Cosmos 1689 Rocket is tumbling? Period about 6 sec (+/- 2 sec), very pronounced sequence of one bright peak and one less bright peak. Something like this? I have reviewed many observations of Cosmos 1689 r (85090B / 16111), as far back as 1990, almost all of which report steady brightness. There was one report, in spring of 2007, of a 60 s variation, much slower than your observation. I found only a few observations of Zi Yuan 2 (03049A / 28057), made in 2004-05, which reported steady brightness. Since 03049A has seldom been observed, and not recently, it is more likely to be an undiscovered flasher than 85090B. It is a fairly young spacecraft, but it could have failed prematurely. I have not attempted to find out its health, so that is only speculation. Please let us know the results of any further observations you may make of 03049A. Ted Molczan |
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