[FPSPACE] Aviation Week...........COSMOS 2441

[Jim Oberg]

Right - a 15-ton spacecraft on a Soyuz-2 booster, sure, Av Week, piece of 
cake.

Note they also confuse the 1990's 'Arkon' satellite with the 1930's 'Akron' 
US Navy dirigible, too.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Locker" <john at satcom.freeserve.co.uk>
To: <SeeSat-L at satobs.org>
Cc: <fpspace at friends-partners.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 2:27 AM
Subject: [FPSPACE] Aviation Week...........COSMOS 2441


> Hi all ,
>
>
>
> There's a great piece on the Aviation Week website
> http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/PERS07298.xml&headline=Russia%20Launches%20Persona%20Milsat&channel=comm
>
> by Craig Cavault about the recent launch.
>
> In it Craig describes the satellite as having a span of 45 feet and length
> 27 feet.
> Now I'm worried..... !
> The images I took the other night  in no way show a spacecraft with wings
> exteneded , or indeed having a span of 45 feet ( 15m )
> The object I imaged  could I suppose show the panels "tucked" either side
> the tube , yet to be unfolded , but that seems unlikely.
> (Compare the image to those of IGS 1B at the top of the page....IGS was
> twice the range , but the panels showed up clearly....and COSMOS was quite
> well illuminated )
>
> So , question is , what did I image.????
> Could Object "B" be the actual payload ? ( I did notice that naked eye the
> lower elevation pass of "B" ( 40 degs) did seem a little brighter than "A"
> even though it was predicted to be of lower value ( "A" was predicted 1.5m
> ,  "B"  2.3m )
>
> If anyone gets chance to observe these two objects I would appreciate a
> second opinion.
>
>
>
> Many thanks
>
> John
>
> http://satcom.website.orange.co.uk/
>
>
>
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