In 1989, just before I left Kwajalein, our ALTAIR radar had track files on
8000 items in space, which included "junk", spent fuel cells, etc. Just a
few months ago, I saw an article that indicate that there is now a total of
20,000 or more pieces of junk in orbit around the Earth.
Part of our mission on Kwaj was to track these items. We tracked 1000 per
week. The idea was that any one of these items might be a hostile weapon
disguised as a piece of junk. By tracking them, we could see it the orbit
had changed. If the orbit changes, we assumed there was an active motor on
board. In order to strike at the USA, certain orbits must be used. We
knew those. If any of the items were suspicious, a red phone was on our
desk with a direct line to North American Air Defense Command.
73,
Dave, K4TO
On Sun, May 26, 2019 at 12:03 PM Dave Lundy via mvus-list <
mvus-list@lists.febo.com> wrote:
Friday night at the MVUS meeting, Gerd showed us a stunning picture of the
enormous number of man-made satellites in orbit around Earth as of sometime
in the late 1990's, if I recall correctly. It turns out that SpaceX had
just launched SIXTY more in one fell swoop Thursday night! You can see a
photo and video at
earthsky.org/space/wow-photo-video-spacex-starlink-satellite-train
Dave Lundy
<www.dma1.org/~lundyd>
<www.facebook.com/lundyd43>
<www.flickr.com/photos/lundyd>
<www.youtube.com/DMADave>
mvus-list mailing list
mvus-list@lists.febo.com
http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/mvus-list_lists.febo.com
In 1989, just before I left Kwajalein, our ALTAIR radar had track files on
8000 items in space, which included "junk", spent fuel cells, etc. Just a
few months ago, I saw an article that indicate that there is now a total of
20,000 or more pieces of junk in orbit around the Earth.
Part of our mission on Kwaj was to track these items. We tracked 1000 per
week. The idea was that any one of these items might be a hostile weapon
disguised as a piece of junk. By tracking them, we could see it the orbit
had changed. If the orbit changes, we assumed there was an active motor on
board. In order to strike at the USA, certain orbits must be used. We
knew those. If any of the items were suspicious, a red phone was on our
desk with a direct line to North American Air Defense Command.
73,
Dave, K4TO
On Sun, May 26, 2019 at 12:03 PM Dave Lundy via mvus-list <
mvus-list@lists.febo.com> wrote:
> Friday night at the MVUS meeting, Gerd showed us a stunning picture of the
> enormous number of man-made satellites in orbit around Earth as of sometime
> in the late 1990's, if I recall correctly. It turns out that SpaceX had
> just launched SIXTY more in one fell swoop Thursday night! You can see a
> photo and video at
> earthsky.org/space/wow-photo-video-spacex-starlink-satellite-train
> --
> Dave Lundy
> <www.dma1.org/~lundyd>
> <www.facebook.com/lundyd43>
> <www.flickr.com/photos/lundyd>
> <www.youtube.com/DMADave>
> _______________________________________________
> mvus-list mailing list
> mvus-list@lists.febo.com
> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/mvus-list_lists.febo.com
>
