On Saturday evening, September 25 2010, ththe Air Force launched a new satellite to help track the nearly 500,000 pieces of space junk and debris floating around the earth.
This is I believe the first in a series of satellites which will be known as Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS).
Read more about it here
Also of note, the satellite was launched on a Minotaur 4 rocket, which is basically a modified Peacekeeper ICBM. The first three stages are esentially kept the same. Then a fourth stage is added which helps to get the payload into LEO (low earth orbit).
Sorry for all the space geek-i-tude coming from me as of late. The satellite observation thing just catches my fancy at the moment. Anyone who knows me well knows that if something catches my attention and I become interested in it, I tend to immerse myself in it. Go all out. Unfortunately, in most cases, I burn out... but usually it comes about the time I find something new. Recent 'hobbies' include songwriting, record collecting (hoarding), circuit bending, completing a discography of the Colortone and Spin-o-rama labels to name a few in the past few years, and purchasing those horrible horrible 50 Movie packs from Mill Creek Entertainment. :P
So, bear with me... the topic will change soon I'm sure. Or not. Space has always held and interest for me. I've always enjoyed looking at the sky, even if I had no idea what I was looking at.
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