CYGNUS 12 - HuskySat-1, SwampSat-2, Orbital Factory 2, EdgeCube deployment | 2020-01-31 - 2020-02-01

[fredy]

With the latest observation it seems that SwampSat-2 is Object 45113:

However 45115 is still close, so we will wait a little before assigning NORAD ID, for now it is set in Network to follow 45113.

HuskySat-1 is object 45117, I’m going to change it in both Network and DB later today.

[fredy]

SwampSat-2 is now identified as OBJECT E (45115). It will be changed in DB and Network later today.
Bellow with the red line the expected doppler curve for OBJECT E and the signal from SwampSat-2:
Observation 1654714:

Observation 1654833:

[fredy]

There are 3 new objects, OBJECT H, OBJECT J and OBJECT K. From them OBJECT J fits better the latest HuskySat-1 satellite than old object OBJECT G. So it seems that HuskySat-1 wasn’t identified correctly and I’m going to revert it back to its temporary NORAD ID (99824) until we match it better.

For now I’m going to set HuskySat-1 to follow OBJECT J (45132) in Network.

OBJECT G:

OBJECT J:

[fredy]

After the latest results and calculations HuskySat-1 has been identified and it is OBJECT J with NORAD ID 45132. So both satellites are now identified on Network and DB.

[fredy]

I’ve just found out that one of the deployed satellites was “Orbital Factory 2 (OF-2)”:

Nanoracks (Nanoracks)

I’m going to add it into DB and schedule several observation trying to get it by using one of the OBJECTS already published by space-track.org.

[fredy]

Almost 24hours after scheduling the first observations and nothing was observed from Orbital Factory 2.

The team reports in this tweet:

UTEP Mechanical Engineering (MechanicalUtep)

that the satellite was received, however this was 7 days ago and there are no other info for that satellite. I’ll keep scheduling in order to find out if Orbital Factory 2 is still alive.

[fredy]

More updates, space-track.org published new objects for this deployment moving from 8 to 17. From some first calculations these doesn’t affect the current identifications but I’ll keep an eye on them.

It is interesting that in these 17 objects there are different objects with the same “International Designator” (19071H, 19071J and 19071K). I don’t remember anything similar in the recent past and that makes me wonder if it is an error or a special situation.

[fredy]

A more recent update… it looks like that the objects are 14 and the ones in range from 45131-45133 have been moved to 45118-45120 range, this is why we can see duplicate COSPAR IDs in space-track.org’s full catalog.

Related tweet:

T.S. Kelso (TSKelso)

[fredy]

Some updates from this deployment:

1. The objects were 14 a deployed by two different pods, here is a good thread discussion that has info about all the deployed satellites.
2. Another amateur satellite, EDGECUBE, was in this deployment. It is added in DB and there are scheduled observations for it. Unfortunately nothing heard until now.
3. We managed to receive Orbital Factory 2 (and some frames decoded), it doesn’t transmit continuously but with the observations we have, we limit the possible NORAD IDs to three of them. Specifically OBJECTS C (45113), D (45114), F (45116), with OBJECT C fitting better as it is shown in the next image of Observation 1687813:
   
   

I’ve set Orbital Factory 2 to follow 45113 in Network, until we make sure that this is the right object.

[fredy]

More good observations and frames from Orbital Factory 2 and with these observations we can identify it. It is OBJECT C (44113). Using ikhnos on observation 1698973:

Another interesting thing, OBJECTS D(45114), E(45115), F(45116), G(45117) are identified by space-track.org as AEROCUBEs. However we have identified that OBJECT E is SwampSat-2. I’m not sure if this is a misidentification or space-track.org still hasn’t announced some OBJECTS from this deployment. The truth is that there is no OBJECT B (with COSPAR 19071B) in their list, so maybe AEROCUBE 14B and SwampSat-2 are still too close to be separated.

EDIT: This object was identified independently by PA0DLO too:

PA0DLO