Astrofest rocket plume, military satelite?

[coldspace]

Hi everyone,

For those who witnessed the spectacular rocket plume at Astrofest on Saturday night, especially for the group of us dancing around with joy at seeing this in the big dobs.

This event was clearly very high altitude, definatly not low orbit, I was saying on Saturday night that it was probally a Geo-stationary satelite making an orbital correction.

But this was sent to me today and could be what we witnessed on Sat night. They launched this on Saturday as well and it was heading to be parked into Geo orbit.

Do you guys thing this was it?

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/aehf-1-advanced-military-communications-satellite-launch-100814.html

Matt.

[mozzie]

hi matt

it was a sight to see in them big dobs we were lucky to be there.i searched starry night on the 14th from 9.30pm to 11.00pm for all satellites and geo's and nothing came close to being there.whether on that course we were viewing or that 2 collided as discussed on the night.your story seems to be it as we were sighting 2 points of light in front of the plume so it seems plausable to me

all in all matt it was a fantastic sight and i hope to see it again in my life time

[mozzie]

damn matt we must have been talking together there and didnt realise it my appoliges its a bit hard at night to know who your talking to

[coldspace]

Lol, its hard mate at night, on Friday night when we were observing through Bryans 20 SDM a person kept coming up and asking in a sneaky voice hows everything going and would ask some weird questions and then would disappear, this went on for a few times over a couple hrs, but we were polite to this weird person but the next time they approached us I put my Red tourch to their face and it was Mr Marples trying to hide behind his jacket collar and had mucking around with us, we nearly crashed tackled him,lol :lol:.

He tends to joke around a bit the funny bloke, so watch out everyone if you are observing and he is at the star party,:D.

[coldspace]

Yep, I recon it was the military launch that I posted.

The rocket lifted off from Florida at 7.07am which would have been around 9pm at Astrofest.
It then climbed high above the Indian ocean, which would have placed it west for our view.

It then after blasting out of the Atmosphere in 5 minutes lit the second stage for 2 burns to push it into Geo orbit.

It then separated from this stage 51 mins after lift off which would have been about 10pm at Astrofest.

It was just amazing to see this and it was so well defined in Jonathans 20 inch SDM, even with the separate satelite detaching from its ride and seeing both these objects racing away from the giant exhaust plume far out in high orbit above the Indian ocean.

This will stick in my head forever. How lucky we were to see this and to have a 20inch SDM at our disposal.

Matt.

[mozzie]

yep it was quite a sight.i was just outside with the family and my pointer showing them where it was in the sky

bloody fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

youve got to watch that bloody maples he's a trickster???????

[coldspace]

Here is some more info on that rocket, its orbit is 22000 miles high so no wonder it looked so spectacular out in high orbit. Theresmore launches to come so if they are going to happen when its night here I will be trying to record their high altitude burns with my Malincam.
It would make for some good video especially the separation into Geo orbit.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/space/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog:04ce340e-4b63-4d23-9695-d49ab661f385Post:01de6ee6-250b-4162-8710-3594253b7f0e

[mozzie]

mmm i'm going to keep an eye on these launches it would be great to see one again!!!!!

[DavidU]

That would have been a sight to see ! Any images taken from Astrofest?

[mozzie]

yes i had seen one david so as people settle back in i hope they post them

[Kal]

oh wow!!! :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:


reading this thread makes me so envious!!!! What a brilliant experience for all those lucky enough to witness this through a scope!

[h0ughy]

i know Terry Cuttle got a few shots - awesome stuff

[AstroTourist]

Have just placed an image in a new thread
Rgds,
Terry

[gary]

Hi Matt,

Based on your observational description, how late in the night it was
observed, the description in the link and Terry's image, it will almost certainly
be the AEHF being boosted into a high geostationary orbit. The article
cited that it would eventually be parked at 90 degrees West longitude.

Did anyone happen to note the approx. RA/Dec or Az/El for a given specific time?

Reading online, apparently its launch had faced several slippages. It was beset
by technical difficulties during testing and a 12 month delay for the
NSA to deliver the cryptographic system. Apart from having to weather the
extremes of heat and cold in space, the vehicle is claimed to be a hardened
target.

So collectively, let's hope it never has to be used in the type of scenario it
was designed for.