"Switched" Objects

When I notice that names or tles for two objects have been switched, I will add a comment to this page.

Dec. 14, 2010: Igor Lissov has pointed out that Spacecom swapped objects 28082 and 29398 in June of 2008.

May 7, 2010: I have noticed that object 07017 was switched with object 06921 in 2004.

July 26, 2009: Due to an observation of "72 58B" by Russell Eberst, I noticed that object 07857 (72 58AD) had been switched with the decayed object 06127 (72 58B). So retroactively, 07857 decayed in 2004!

Aug. 1, 2007: Due to a post by Tom Laskowski, I found that Spacecom had switched the tles for objects 07616 and 09040 on May 8, 2004. So now 09040 is a tiny piece of debris and 07616 is the largest piece of debris. So 07616 now matches what we have seen as a fairly bright object in the past.

June 13, 2006: Spacecom has switched the names and designations for objects 26475 and 26476. Object 26475 is now called the DM-F3 Dellta 3 rocket and object 26476 is now called the DM-F3 payload. The tles for these objects are the same as before, only the names were changed.

Jan 3, 2006: I noticed that Spacecom has announced that they have switched the names for Iridiums 90 and 91. Originally object 27372 (02-005A) was Iridium 90 and object 27373 (02-005B) was Iridium 91. Now the former is Iridium 91 and the latter is Iridium 90.

Nov. 14, 2005: Posted on HearSat: Objects 27057 and 27059 have incorrect "switched" names. Elsets from 2002:

Cosmos 2384
1 27055U 01058A   02037.79037433 +.00000028 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 00378
2 27055 082.5491 148.7007 0010428 127.7340 232.4701 12.59722965005110
Cosmos 2385
1 27056U 01058B   02037.84690699 +.00000028 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 00172
2 27056 082.5383 148.5947 0006216 117.4119 242.7604 12.60432493005125
Cosmos 2386
1 27057U 01058C   02037.81509183 +.00000028 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 00290
2 27057 082.5453 148.5938 0003078 047.4594 312.6757 12.61419410005127
Gonets D1 7
1 27058U 01058D   02037.79852352 +.00000028 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 00242
2 27058 082.5373 148.5437 0003970 004.0297 356.0828 12.61934116005129
Gonets D1 8
1 27059U 01058E   02037.81662679  .00000028  00000-0  10000-3 0   203
2 27059  82.5433 148.5850 0001522 105.9615 254.1645 12.61371500  5129
Gonets D1 9
1 27060U 01058F   02038.40113808  .00000029  00000-0  10000-3 0   218
2 27060  82.5415 148.1322 0007877 326.4082  33.6509 12.62902888  5206

These payloads are released from the rocket in a specific order. So the Cosmos (Strela) payloads have the lowest mean motion and the Gonets have the highest mean motion. But the third and fourth objects have nearly the same mean motion, so Spacecom has to guess which is which. After 3 1/2 years, it is clear that they have the objects switched.

Oct. 24, 2005: On the evening of Oct. 21, Ed asked me to observe a tumbling piece of debris (NCat 10184, 1977 65N) from the explosion of the Delta 1 rocket that launched this payload. I measured a tumble period of 5.9 seconds and later I noticed that this matched the tumble period that was recorded for NCat 10144, 1977 65B. The switch occurred in May, 2004:

Before:
1 10184U 77065N   04125.72648538  .00000347  00000-0  78052-4 0  9691
2 10184  29.0570 246.6600 0873124 322.4279  31.8252 13.18379457282244
1 10144U 77065B   04126.13024708  .00000795  00000-0  18572-3 0  4591
2 10144  29.0818  23.0841 0811354   7.3456 353.8221 13.36276310294095
After:
1 10184U 77065N   04132.85547663 +.00000772 +00000-0 +18226-3 0 09733
2 10184 029.0797 349.3803 0810683 061.6695 306.3173 13.36285737283190
1 10144U 77065B   04133.22522968  .00000338  00000-0  81415-4 0  4646
2 10144  29.0568 210.1430 0872483  21.3163 342.1554 13.18382854295037

Sept. 27, 2005: Sometime in 1999, I noticed that the names for objects 22970 and 22971 were reversed. The SSR says that 22970 is Tubsat B with and RCS of about 8 square meters. It says that 22971 is Meteor 3-6 rocket with an RCS of 0.5 square meters. I have observed 22970 and I have failed to observe 22971, so it is clear that 22970 is the rocket and 22971 is Tubsat B.

Feb. 5, 2005: Between April 9 and April 16, 2004, the largest fragment of a Delta 1 explosion of the NOAA 5 rocket was switched with the B debris fragment.

Before:
1 09063U 76077B   04124.61569003 -.00000011 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 08307
2 09063 101.1633 154.0734 0132766 148.0713 212.8599 13.11625421309259
1 10661U 76077X   04125.69287559 -.00000030  00000-0  10000-3 0  5279
2 10661 101.8801 169.2396 0060837  77.9696 282.8185 12.50349548266660
After:
1 09063U 76077B   04130.09350417 -.00000030 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 08360
2 09063 101.8763 173.6157 0060886 069.7611 290.9990 12.50349518309967
1 10661U 76077X   04132.01453411 -.00000011  00000-0  10000-3 0  5319
2 10661 101.1640 161.8148 0132418 131.9109 229.3401 13.11639446267476