Space sleuths speculate on spy satellite

A previous launch of an Atlas 2AS

By Richard Stenger
CNN

(CNN) -- The U.S. military remains tight-lipped about a top-secret launch scheduled for Saturday, but amateur space sleuths think they know what it will boost into orbit.

An Atlas rocket is expected to lift off in the morning from California, carrying a hefty payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. spy satellite agency.

Vandenberg Air Force Base, which will host its first space launch of the year, gave few other details about the 11:24 a.m. EDT launch.

But hobby satellite watchers, studying the launch window and projected flight path, suspect that the Atlas 2AS rocket will carry three sibling spacecraft designed to eavesdrop on ocean vessels.

"The way I approach launches, it's really detective work. You're looking for clues and match them up with things you know," said Ted Molczan of Toronto.

The flight was postponed twice, giving him and other visual satellite observers an ideal opportunity to calculate the path of the payload.

"We got lucky. They gave us the precise launch window on three different dates," said Molczan, who thinks the payload is a cluster of orbiters that would comprise part of the Naval Ocean Surveillance System, or NOSS. Such orbiters launch together and separate in space.

NOSS triplets fly in tight formations to help them zero in on the location of radio transmissions from water and possibly land. The new satellites might be replacing one of a number of older generation NOSS trios, Molczan said.

One of the greatest sights for amateur satellite trackers is spotting them as they make their maiden flights into orbit. Brian Webb of California knows just the place to wait for these space birds.

"The launch should be visible ... within a 50-mile radius of the launch pad," he wrote in a message posted on the Visual Satellite Observer's Page. "I'm planning on viewing (it) from the mountains north of Santa Barbara."

NOSS formations might be responsible for strange triangles of lights, witnessed on occasion by night sky observer, according to UFO experts.

Some of the top-secret satellites reportedly go by the code-name "Parcae," a reference in Roman mythology to the three all-seeing daughters of Zeus who spin, measure and cut the thread of fate for all mortals.