Top all-time · #1820
SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log
Personal blog · sattrackcam.blogspot.comsciencesystems
SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log is a personal blog at sattrackcam.blogspot.com about science and systems. Since 2017, 41 different Hacker News readers have linked it 49 times, most often “Kosmos 482 Descent Craft reentry forecasts”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-25, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (20) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Marco Langbroek's blog on satellite tracking, reentry forecasts and orbital analysis, using amateur observations. HN readers cite it as a source on Soviet and Chinese spacecraft reentries, launches and military satellites.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 20 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
classified military Space (spy satellites) and Missiles
Most-linked posts?
- Kosmos 482 Descent Craft reentry forecasts7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2025-04-28
- A Spectacular View of the SpaceX Starlink Satellite Train3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-05-25
- Image identified as by USA 224, a classified satellite3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-09-05
- First debris pieces from the Indian ASAT test of 27 March catalogued3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-03-01
- Close Encounters of the Classified Kind: Analysis of Approach of USA 276 to ISS2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-06-06
- /2023/11/new-starship-launch-attempt-on-november.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-11-18
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-01-26
- Video shows SpaceX satellites burning up due to solar storm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-09
- Fuel dump of Zuma's Falcon 9 Upper Stage (and rumours that Zuma failed)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-01-09
What Hacker News says?
I agree, I only learned it recently but there are a few very motivated individuals that track satellites and share a lot of the information. I learned about it during the whole Zuma fiasco, from the SatTrackCam blog [0]. I would definitely recommend reading it if this sort of thing interests you, it awesome to see how these guys do the tracking and the sheer amount of information they infer. The Zuma ones are great,…
Comment linking /
on “NASA’s IMAGE satellite, lost since 2005, is alive”Submitted China Launches a 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft' as a story · 81 points
HN discussionNo, this is not true. First of all, every nation is required by space law to publish the initial orbits of every object they launch, as part of that taking responsibility I mentioned earlier. The US Government further publishes tracking on pretty much every single thing in orbit of the earth larger than a few centimeters, to help satellite operators avoid space debris. They do obfuscate the current orbit of their ow…
Comment linking /
on “Datacenters in space aren't going to work”Submitted Where to hide your nuclear missile submarine? as a story · 77 points
HN discussionThat's exactly how it was revealed that a high quality image intentionally leaked by Trump came from a satellite and not an overhead plane. Press article: https://www.livescience.com/secret-classified-satellite-trum... Blog write up: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/09/image-from-trump-tw...
Comment linking /2019/09/image-from-trump-tweet-identified-as.html
on “US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons”Submitted First debris pieces from the Indian ASAT test of 27 March catalogued as a story · 40 points
HN discussionArticle says ±3.1 days, but the author wrote a newer entry (go to homepage, click on latest article, click through to space.com link¹) that says May 10, ±2.2 days. Starting to get to the range where a timezone would be helpful! Via Wikipedia², which will probably also get updated fast, this page says they'll stay updated with the latest estimate: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-... ¹ http…
Comment linking /2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
on “Old Soviet Venus descent craft nearing Earth reentry”Submitted Image identified as by USA 224, a classified satellite as a story · 36 points
HN discussionIt wasn't from Marshall islands at Hawaii as the target. The simulated target was the west coast, with it flying out roughly near Hawaii. There's a open source intelligence blog that confirmed this by noting where the navigation warning areas were announced during the test: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2020/11/sm-3-block-iia-miss...
Comment linking /2020/11/sm-3-block-iia-missile-defense-test-ftm.html
on “US Navy destroyer shoots down an ICBM in milestone test”Submitted Video shows SpaceX satellites burning up due to solar storm as a story · 11 points
HN discussionhttps://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/04/ most of the debris will stay on orbit for several weeks to months: by half a year from now, most of it should be gone however, except for a few lingering pieces. Probability is very low similar to the one in the below article. Odds of hitting is 1 in 300 Trillion https://www.livescience.com/61955-chinese-space-station-reen...
Comment linking /2019/04/
on “Low-earth orbit satellites threatened by debris from Indian anti-satellite test”Submitted Kosmos 482 Descent Craft reentry forecasts as a story · 8 points
HN discussionMarco Langbroek, who did the reentry forecast that the linked article is based on, convincingly argues[0] that the bus did separate and reenter separately (in 1981) and what remains in orbit is just the lander. There are several independent pieces of evidence that are consistent with this; the orbital decay pattern, the radar cross section and optical telescope observations all point to only the lander itself remain…
Comment linking /2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
on “After 53 years, a failed Soviet Venus spacecraft is crashing back to Earth”Submitted Kosmos 2612 and ICEYE-X36: a worrisome cat-and-mouse-game in Space as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThat figure of 10 to 15 kJ can be very misleading about what it takes to propel something to such speeds. Put into 'TNT equivalent', it would take the entire energy of 50g of TNT to boost a 100g bolt by just 2 km/s. It's difficult to concentrate that much energy per mass in an explosion (which is leaky). To add further, most ASATs (including the Indian test) doesn't use explosives, but make a direct hit (hit to kill…
Comment linking /2019/04/why-even-low-altitude-asat-intercepts.html
on “New video of Intelsat 29e satellite reveals dramatic “anomaly””Submitted Kosmos 482 Descent Craft reentry forecasts as a story · 6 points
HN discussionTrajectory is planned such that the ballistic trajectory minimizes the probability it will hit land. So it is relatively safe even if the engines and abort system fails. You can see the trajectory here and how they thread it through the Caribbean islands & Cuba. https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2023/11/new-starship-launch...
Comment linking /2023/11/new-starship-launch-attempt-on-november.html
on “SpaceX update regarding Starship FAA flight approval”Submitted A Spectacular View of the SpaceX Starlink Satellite Train as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThose were already tracked by an amateur astronomer. What's your point? https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-nrol-146-payloa...
Comment linking /2024/05/the-nrol-146-payloads-observing-train.html
on “When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk”Submitted A Spectacular View of the SpaceX Starlink Satellite Train as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> Orbits are exactly regular, by definition. Orbital parameter changes do happen but are rare. How does that match up with [0]? "... a satellite that stalks other satellites, started another relocation move on July 22, leaving its position near ASTRA 4A at longitude 4.8 E and drifting west at 0.9 degrees per day." Do they make this up, or do you and I have a vastly different understanding of "irregular"? [0] https:/…
Comment linking /2024/07/the-russian-sigint-satellite-luch-olymp.html?m=1
on “When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk”Submitted Fireball seen over New Zealand during cricket match was reentry of Kosmos 2430 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis is blogspam. Significantly higher quality article: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/09/image-from-trump-tw...
Comment linking /2019/09/image-from-trump-tweet-identified-as.html
on “Image identified as by USA 224, a classified satellite”Submitted Venera 8 Kosmos 482 descent craft reentry forecasts as a story · 2 points
HN discussionOriginal source: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2019/05/wowowow-spectacular...
Comment linking /2019/05/wowowow-spectacular-view-of-spacex.html
on “SpaceX Starlink Satellites Spotted over Netherlands [video]”Submitted The reentry of a Falcon 9 upper stage over NW Europe on 19 February as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAt least collision avoidance manoeuvres are not that common in GEO as far as I know, so things like this are more the exception: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/flaviomurolo_meteosat-mtg-sat... Well, there's also the Russians sneaking around: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-russian-sigint-...
Comment linking /2024/07/the-russian-sigint-satellite-luch-olymp.html
on “Intelsat 33e loses power in geostationary orbit”Submitted North Korea's Malligyong-1 satellite and imaging Guam as a story · 2 points
HN discussionMuch more info is posted here: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-...
Comment linking /2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
on “Kosmos 482's return being watched closely by experts”Submitted Where did Starship fragments end up after its in-flight destruction? as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
