LAUNCH at 2242 UTC Aug 23 of Rocket Lab Electron from Mahia, New Zealand with 5 secret commercial satellites - possibly for Echostar Australia or perhaps E-Space.
Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589.bsky.social
18724 Followers
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Astrophysicist
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For those wondering about the additional satellite, called limasat, on X-37B OTV-8, my guess would be that it was on the service module, like Falconsat 8 seen here on the X-37B OTV-6 service module
And it did, USA-555 it is and it seems that there was an additional satellite on-board X-37B OTV-8 (possibly on it's service module, like Falconsat-8) called Limasat
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Yes, specificially Orion 50SLXT and Orion 50
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LAUNCH at 0610 UTC Aug 22 of the suborbital FT-3R hypersonic missile test from Kodiak to Kwajalein, using a Trident C-4 stage 1 and Pegasus upper stages (@sethland on twitter caught the launch and reported the launch time to me)
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US Space Force has cataloged an additional payload, LIMASAT, associated with OTV-8. The orbit is secret but likely close to the 327 x 334 km x 49.5 deg of the OTV. LIMASAT is most likely a small satellite (10 to 50 kg range) ejected from OTV payload bay during first few orbits.
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X-37B OTV-8 observed by hobbyists in a 327 x 334 km x 49.5 deg orbit
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LAUNCH at 1704 UTC Aug 22 of Starlink Group 17-6 from Vandenberg Space Force Base
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Thanks, that is useful background info.
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It seems to be mostly about not revealing how many satellites were on the launch, although they will do the UN filing correctly eventually so it's mostly just stupid
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A complication is the deployment of subsatellites; sometimes they get Kosmos names and sometimes not. Are 2025-131C and 2025-026F Kosmos-2590 and 2591 perhaps? Or not?
