Satellites galore!!

[Liz]

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed the huge increase of visible satellites on the heavens-above website?
Used to be about 5-6 a night, then suddenly it has jumped to about 20!!
Has there been a huge influx sent off recently?
Some are quite bright eg, the Atlas 2A Centaur R/B is -0.1 tonight!! Also others like H-2A,2Z-2cR/B, GOCE... bucketloads of new (to me) ones, that I havent noticed before.
Lots of goodies to look out for anyway.

[renormalised (Carl)]

More space junk!!!!

[Liz]

Originally Posted by renormalised

More space junk!!!!

Must be a dangerous place up there.

Tonight we have the Atlas 2A Centaur R/B at 0.0 mag!! How come so bright, is it a biggie??

Ok ... its an American rocket body that goes from mag 2.7 to -3.4 .... launched in 1963!!
Oh, so its leftovers from a previous launch.

Atlas-Centaurhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_1_launch.jpg
An Atlas-Centaur launching Surveyor 1FunctionExpendable launch systemManufacturerConvair
General DynamicsCountry of originUnited StatesLaunch historyStatusRetiredLaunch sitesLC-36, Cape CanaveralTotal launches61Successes51Failures8Parti al failures2Maiden flight9 May 1962Last flight19 May 1983
The Atlas-Centaur was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was used for 61 orbital launches between 1962 and 1983.[1] It was replaced by the Atlas G, which still contains a Centaur upper stage on top of an Atlas rocket. It was the first rocket to use cryogenic fuel; the Centaur stage burned liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.