Post a Comment On: SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log

[Image]image: Virgin Orbit
During the first days of July, I have tried to image objects from the June 30 Virgin Orbit 'Tubular Bells' launch, that launched a number of smallsats including Brik-II, the first Dutch military satellite (see earlier posts here and here).I so far managed to unambiguously image three objects from the launch. One of these is probably the LauncherOne upper stage, the other two must be payloads.
On July 2nd, I imaged objects A and B, A using a 2.0/135 mm and B using a 1.4/85 mm lens on the WATEC 902H2 Supreme low light level video camera. B was very faint and barely visible.
On July 4th, I unambiguously imaged objects B and H using a 2.0/135 mm lens.
Object A is relatively bright and well ahead of the other objects. It is in a somewhat lower orbit: a 418 x 504 km orbit, whereas the other objects are in a 496 x 522 km orbit. So object 2021-058A almost certainly is the LauncherOne upper stage.
Below is video of the A-object, shot on July 2nd with the 2.0/135 mm lens. The bright star top left is Polaris. I could not see the other objects (passing about 30 minutes later): for passes to the north of me, the illumination angle is less favourable than for passes to the south of me.



 The B and H objects are fainter, and only visible during passes to the south of me. The video below shows them, faint but unmistakenly, during a pass in evening twilight on July 4th (sun at only 7 degrees below the horizon, so the sky background was still quite bright). 
A fourth object, Object C, was possibly seen on July 2nd when I watched the pass live on screen, but I could not see it anymore when inspecting the footage afterwards. Objects D, E, F and G were not seen, but on all imaged passes observing conditions were not perfect (on July 2, cirrus clouds were invading the FOV around the time of the objects D, E, F and G passing; while on July 4th the sky background was still very bright).It is not clear which object is which at the moment, although I have reasons to believe that Brik-II must be either object D, E or F. I have some suspicion that objects B and H are part of STP27-VPA. [edit: see updates below: Object H was, but B is not).UPDATE:

I obtained even better imagery of the two STORK objects (B and C) on July 17:


 UPDATE 14 Jul 2021:
Object B actually appears to be one of the STORK satellites, based on Dopplerfitting of  radiosignals received at 401.1 MHz (and first detected by Alicja Musial in Poland). Object C also appears to be a STORK, based on Doppler fitting of the radio signal.. Objects D and E are now listed by CSpOC as CNCE3 and CNCE1, which are part of STP27-VPA.Objects F, G and H then are Brik-II, Gunsmoke-J and Halo-NET (the latter two are part of STP27-VPA), with not certain which is which.

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UPDATE 16 Jul 2021Object F is now identified as Brik-II. Object H (One of the two objects I imaged on July 4) is now identified as Gunsmoke-J 2. As, from radio Doppler fitting, we know objects B and C are the STORKS (not yet identified as such by CSpOC), this means object G must be Halo-NET:Object A    LauncherOne rbObject B    StorkObject C    StorkObject D    CNCE3*Object E    CNCE1*Object F    Brik-IIObject G   Halo-NET*Object H    Gunsmone-J 2*
* part of STP27-VPA
Bob Christy has pointed out that there might be a swap of the A and G designation in the future, to make the A designation a payload rather than the RB.