Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Hatchman
. . . but I've never heard of a satellite flaring more than once.
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Hi Paul,
My guess is that you saw a rocket body tumble (instead of spinning around the axis of symmetry it
tumbles around the short body axis). When China launched its last manned spaceflight I observed the separation of the payload and rocket body and timed it as it passed i-Carinae at 4 am one September morning. The payload (with 2 astronauts) was steady yet the r/b immediately started tumbling at a 21 second interval. I posted my observations to the SeeSat-L list (
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2008/0191.html).
The theory of what is going on is explained at
http://www.satobs.org/tumble/rottheory.html.
The site also has some pretty serious Iridium resources, including the explanation for how the MMA causes flaring, other flare possibilities and different prediction software routines that use spare constellations. Visit
http://www.satobs.org/iridium.html.
Cheers,
Bill