Broadcast sats possibly in danger from drifting milsat

[Analoguesat]

Ive been looking at some news & reports about the lost American geostationary military imaging satellite USA-197 (aka DSP F23).

Launched last year the yankee war machine lost control of it in September and its drifting along the Clarke belt. I cant find any exact tracking information about it, apart from a UK based observer has been involved in trying to monitor any radio traffic off it.

This comment on one of the sat-obs forum posts has intruiged me

Obviously Peter and myself will keep a close watch on it (referring to another satellite - A/S), and also DSP-F23 as it starts drifting through clusters of commercial satellites -- are we going to have some billiards ?

John Locker will also be watching in case he will loose any of the satellites that provide the UK and Europe with TV !

[compufunk]

They kept that quiet, I would have thought this was a pretty newsworthy story.

[rolfw]

Crumbs, could be some huge lawsuits in the frame if any collisions occur.

[Channel Hopper]

Crumbs, could be some huge lawsuits in the frame if any collisions occur.

Unlikely, proof of a collision would be needed, plausible denial and all that. Then they could always blame it on other satellites up there, Nigerian for example.

_http://www.sat-index.co.uk/failures/index.html?http://www.sat-index.co.uk/failures/nigcomsat1.html

Mind you, if debris does enter the Clarke belt it doesn't bode well as it will likely start a domino effect.

[Analoguesat]

I did some more research on thisa few days ago - the dead sat safely passed the Hotbirds and is heading for the Astra 1's at the moment.

[compufunk]

They kept that quiet, I would have thought that this is pretty a news worthy story.

One missing word and a typo can make a hell of a mess of a sentence

And, I cant edit it

[Channel Hopper]

_http://www.space.com/news/081202-miitary-satellite-drift.html

General consensus in the comments appears to be 'blast it to smithereens with some ray gun'.

[PaulR]

I would have thought that smithereens are the last thing that you want floating around the Clarke belt.

[Analoguesat]

Update to this story - European observers put the dead bird closing in on the Astra1 's at 19E at the moment, heading slowly eastwards..

[guest]

Oh dear, I hope my favourite Channel (tv.gusto) is going to survive

[trigger]

Update to this story - European observers put the dead bird closing in on the Astra1 's at 19E at the moment, heading slowly eastwards..

Just out of interest how are they observing? Assuming its dead are they using telescopes or the like?

Personally I hope 2D gets it - right in the low band.

Thanks

[Analoguesat]

Optical observations with telescopes.

Many of the guys have got motor driven computer tracked scopes that lock in one position and allow them to study not just the the Clarke Belt but all sorts of stuff.

More info here for anyone interested:

_http://satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2009/index.html

[trigger]

That link comes up 403 forbidden.

Thanks though

[Analoguesat]

Hmm works for me. Try this one:

_http://satobs.org/seesat/

[bite]

Very interesting indeed...

But I read somewhere, that many other sats can be in danger because of destroyed fragments...

[Analoguesat]

Fragmented geosats are every sat operators nightmare. One collision from debris, or a meteor could cause a domino effect cascade failure which could make the geosat orbit unusable for thousands of years. If that happens wave goodbye to a huge part of our technological society.

Its not just the abandoned DSP23 milsat thats a potential threat now, Astra 5A failed last week and is reported to have started drifting off station, becoming the latest broadcast sat to not have been disposed of to high orbit safely.

I was rading an article just this week which said that at least a dozen dead birds were disposed of too low - including Gals 2 one of the Eutelsat 2F series, & Hispasat 1A

[Analoguesat]

Please note - any comments wishing the destruction of any individual sat for any reason whatsoever will be removed - the idea is not even remotely funny.

[bite]

OK, I'm sorry...
Where Astra 5A is right now?
I just can find the articles about it's loss...

[Channel Hopper]

As it was positioned at 31.5 East, it will not have moved far from there in the last ten days.

[Analoguesat]

Its drifting very slowly eastwards:

_http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25049

From the reports Ive seen Id guess it was spinning so cant get earth lock.

Reports seem to indicate everything was working ok one minute, then it went wonky so presumably its either been hit by a micometeor or some space junk.

[Analoguesat]

Heres a nice pic of the dead milsat sailing past the Astra 1's

_http://www.foton.co.za/images/assa_imaging/gallery/greg%20roberts/groberts_21jan2009.jpg

[Channel Hopper]

That group of satellites is under 60kms apart, I think that constitutes a near miss.

[Analoguesat]

A near miss is good enough

[Channel Hopper]

Plod is apparently looking into it

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0901/14dsp23/

[trigger]

It´s a bit worrying really.

China gets upset and thinks sod it and ruins it for everyone.

Probably not but it does make you think how fragile it all is.