It's been 24 hours 56 hours since ISRO's PSLV-C37 launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SRI) at 09:28 local time (03:58 UTC).
I see satcat numbers and object names for 105 total objects; 41948 2017-008A
through 42052 2017-008DJ
. It looks like only six deployed satellites have TLEs so far A-F
with DJ
appearing to be the fourth stage of the PSLV rocket still in orbit.
24 hours 56 hours is longer than I expected for first TLEs to be released.
I'm pretty sure this is quite a challenge, and I can think up a number of them here:
- n > 100
- low radar cross-secction
- low optical cross-section
- no telemetry or on-board GPS fixes reported from satellite owners
Do any of these (or other) factors stand out as a primary reason why this would be so challenging? Are any of them not really a reason?
Videos below: P- and P+ views appear to be nadir and zenith cameras.
These are pretty darn cool videos - but check that your volume is not at maximum before playing. Vids similar but not the same, waiting for a single definitive video to post instead.
Also available as a Planet Labs Tweet!