Quote:
Originally Posted by koputai
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Got a bit more on the trio...
From this site.
http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/...ss_000114.html
Supposedly from Space Flight News in 1999.
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Three watching eyes
This space project is so secret that even its official name remains a topic of debate, so observers dubbed it the "Naval Ocean Surveillance System," or NOSS.
The US currently operates three sets of spy satellites, launched consecutively in 1990, 1991 and 1996. These satellites orbit pole-to-pole in groups of three at an altitude of 1,100 kilometers, monitoring the position, speed and direction of all military ships at sea by detecting radio and radar signals and then triangulating the point of origin..
The components of the trio orbit separately under Newton's Laws, and are not technically "in formation." However, their orbits are planned to crisscross during every circuit, being widest apart over ocean areas of greatest interest.
The project's Top Secret name is reportedly "Parcae," the Roman name for the three somber, all-seeing goddesses who observe human activity and determine justice for individuals. If so, perhaps they call the satellites "Clotho," "Lachesis" and "Atropos" at the top secret Parcae "mission control center."
The visible secret
In the case of the two English observers, Ed Cameron, an amateur astronomer in central Texas, found the precise answer -- NOSS satellites flying overhead at the time and same direction as in their reports.
Spall had seen what Cameron calls "the NOSS 2-3 trio," and Thompson had been observing "the NOSS 2-2 trio."
Amateur spacewatchers have known about these objects for a long timer. But there was some debate whether the satellites would be visible to the naked eye.
Professor Brian Hunter of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario has photographed NOSS 2-2 passing through the constellation Lyra in late 1997.
"This pass was seen [with the] naked eye by many in the Northeastern US," he noted when posting the image to the internet."