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Calibrating tracking astrometry accuracies using SWARM as calibration objects
Artist impression of SWARM (image: ESA) When I started tracking satellites and publishing this blog 18 years ago, I spent a lot of time on validating the accuracy of my methods and observations. A lot...
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Gearing up for a new North Korean satellite launch
photo: KCNAOn May 17, the North Korean News Agency KCNA and the North Korean State Newspaper Rodong Sinmun carried a news item, accompanied by photographs, of Kim Jung Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae...
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UPDATED : North Korea announces satellite launch for May 30 - June 10
UPDATED 29 May 2023 12:00 UTC to reflect alternative orbit optionUPDATED 30 May 7:45 UTC to add comparison with 2016 launch UPDATE 30 May 22:00 UTC: the launch seems to have happened, around 21:30 UTC...
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UPDATED: Ceci n'est pas une pipe... (French and US missile tests in the...
click map to enlargeThey must love Magritte over at the French DoD, looking at the shape of the exclusion zones for a missile test published as Navigational Warnings HYDROLANT 1371/23 and HYDROLANT...
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[UPDATED] North Korea's KMS 4 has only a few days left on orbit
[post update nr 8, 4 July 2023 09:40 UTC] Recently, on May 30, North Korea tried to launch a new satellite. The satellite however did not reach orbit, because the second stage of the launch vehicle...
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The reentry of a Soyuz rocket stage over southern Australia on August 7
click map to enlarge On 7 August 2023 at 13:20 UTC, Russia launched the first of it's improved GLONASS-K2 navigation satellites from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The launch employed a Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a...
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A new North Korean satellite launch attempt upcoming [UPDATED]
Click map to enlargeUPDATE (24 Aug 2023)The launch took place around 18:50 UTC (so at nighttime this time) on August 23. The payload failed to reach orbit.According to the North Korean State News...
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A new test attempt of the LRHW hypersonic missile from Cape Canaveral
click map to enlarge A few days ago, Navigational Warnings (NAVAREA IV 1030/23) were published that point to a new test launchattempt of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) from Cape Canaveral in...
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Recovering USA 310, PAN and Trumpet 2
click image to enlargeOur coverage of classified objects in high altitude orbits has been waning over the past few years. In February, I made a first attempt to recover some. In the past two weeks, I...
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Firefly Alpha 'Victus Nox' Rapid Response launch [UPDATED]
click to enlargeOn September 15 at 2:28 UTC, Firefly Aerospace succesfully launched a Firefly Alpha rocket from SLC-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It carried 'Victus Nox', a small...
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The upcoming (?) reentry of Kwangmyŏngsŏng 3-2 (KMS 3-2), North Korea's last...
KMS 3-2 (image: KCNA)Somewhere this week, North Korea's last remaining - albeit probably not functional - satellite on orbit, Kwangmyŏngsŏng 3-2 (KMS 3-2, 2012-072A), will reenter (or has it already?...
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PAN is on the move again
click image to enlarge In a recent post I mentioned that I recovered the enigmatic SIGINT satellite PAN/NEMESIS-1 (2009-047A) - we had lost sight of it for about a year - and that it appeared to be...
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Paper in Nature on the high optical Brightness of the BlueWalker 3 satellite
Last Monday 2 October 2023, a consortium paper initiated by the IAU-CPS was published in the high-impact Journal Nature. It is titled "The high optical brightness of the BlueWalker 3 satellite", and...
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Did Russia position a geostationary satellite over Israel last month? No.
screenshot quote Budanov in interview with Ukranian Pravda Based on this interview with Kyrylo Budanov, the Chief of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ukranian military, in the Ukranian Pravda...
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[UPDATED] A possible Missile Defense Test from Hawaii on October 25-29...
click map to enlarge [this post was updated 25 Oct 2023 to include an upcoming LRHW test from Cape Canaveral] A Navigational Warning (NAVAREA XII 735/23) has appeared that suggests a Missile Defense...
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A Goodbye to Delfi-C3
Delfi-C3 tracklet on a stack of 16 video frames, 24 Oct 2023 (note: new reentry forecasts are now published in a separate dedicated blogpost)Earlier this year, my TU Delft colleague Stefano Speretta...
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An upcoming French SLBM test in the Atlantic, ARRW, and a failed Minuteman...
click map to enlarge click image to enlargeWhile strong Autumn storms and rainshowers (the image above is an APT image my radio received from NOAA 19 this morning, showing storm Ciarán over the...
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Delfi-C3 reentry forecast updates (periodically updated post)
[ Post last updated: 14 Nov 2023 12:45 UTC ]In my October 25 blogpost I presented imagery of the iconic 3U cubesat Delfi-C3 (2008-021G) taken by my tracking camera. I also provided a reentry...
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Imaging Navigation Satellites
All of us have used Navigation Satellites, whether you realise it or not. Our modern western world can no longer function well without them. But it is a challenge to actually see them in the sky. In...
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Boldly going where no spaceplane has gone before? New X-37B mission OTV 7 to...
X-37B OTV 6 after landing in November 2022 (image: US Air Force)The US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Officehas announced that the 7th mission (OTV 7) of its robotic X-37B Spaceplane will launch, as...
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