SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log

Russia is in the process of building a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit for data connectivity, called RASSVET (Russian for 'dawn' or 'sunrise'): a kind of Russian Starlink.

click map to enlarge On 24 July 2026 near 20:26 UTC (22:26 CEST), a defunct Starlink satellite, Starlink-1541, reentered over the North Sea, northern Netherlands and Germany.

The Vanguard 1 upper stage (1958-002A).

Artemis II imaged with the TU Delft 41.5-cm MISO telescope on 8 April 2026 'track & stack' of 13 images on the Spacecraft movement.

I recently was a guest in the Euronews podcast series Tech Talks, in an episode called "How to track a spy satellite".

still from reentry movie.

Falcon 9 upper stage.

Click map to enlarge (The title of this blogpost is inspired by a similar titled post from several years ago) The uncontrolled reentry of a large (assumed 7-8 ton weight) Chinese ZQ-3 (Zhuque-3) upper stage, 2025-282A (catnr. 66877), on 30 January 2026 for

click map to enlarge On 9 December 2025 between 19:06 and 19:28 UTC, SpaceX will launch the classified mission NROL-77 for the NRO, from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral.

On 12 November 2025, the Netherlands' first military satellite, the 6U cubesat BRIK-II (2021-058F), reentered into the atmosphere after 4 years of service.

click map to enlarge On 18 October 2025 near 14:00 local time (= 18 October ~6:00 UTC), a strange object was found on or near a dirtroad in the outback of the Pilbara region in Western Australia.

click to enlarge In the early local morning of 16 October 2025 around 1:56 UTC, a spectacular phenomena appeared in the sky over Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

frame stack of movie by SAC station Anasco, Puerto Rico click map to enlarge On 15 September 2025, Navigational Warnings appeared that pointed to an upcoming Trident-II D5 SLBM (Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile) unarmed test launch in the Atlantic bet…

This morning (early 24 August 2025) weather finally cooperated and I managed to observe both of the USSF-36 payloads, two days after launch: the X-37B Spaceplane OTV 8 (2025-183A) and LIMASAT (2025-183B).

OTV 8 imaged by Kevin Fetter 5 hours after launch.

Click map to enlarge Navigational Warnings have been published that point to a Hypersonic Missile Test (a repeat of the failed FT-3 from 2021) from the Pacific Space Port at Kodiak Island, Alaska, to the Ronald Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein, Marshall Isla…

X-37B mission OTV 6 after landing (Image: US Air Force) Navigational Warnings have appeared for OTV 8, the 8th launch of the secretive X-37B spaceplane by the US Space Force (launch USSF-36).

On 6 August 2005, this blog saw its very first post.

click image to enlarge Some 590 km above our heads, a complex series of multiple Rendezvous and Proximity Manoevers (RPO) by multiple Russian military spacecraft has been going on the past months, weeks and days.

Object C (click image to enlarge) Kosmos 2558 (2022-089A, cat nr. 53323) is a Russian military satellite that was launched from Plesetsk three years ago, on 1 August 2022.

still from one of the fireball movies posted on Twitter by @Buggy__Bugler In the evening of 5 June 2025 around 22h local time (17h UTC), a slow profusely fragmenting fireball was seen and filmed from several cities in Kazachstan, including Astana, and Bis…

On 10 May 2025, an unusual object, the Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, had an uncontrolled reentry (see this earlier post).

click image to enlarge Russia launched a new military satellite from Plesetsk today (23 May 2025), Kosmos 2588 (cat nr. 64095, COSPAR 2025-109A).

Framestack (530 frames) showing variable brightness of Kosmos 2553.

Click diagram to enlarge Last update: 11 May 2025 10:15 UTC (this post is being periodically updated with new reentry forecasts/postcasts) * The last Tudat nominal forecast is reentry on 10 May 2025, 6:39 UTC ± 1.5 hr * * The Tudat nominal aftercast is re…

Click image to enlarge The image above is a stack of twelve 4-second exposures taken with a Canon EOS 80D and EF 2.8/24 mm lens, and shows the Crew Dragon FRAM-2 passing over the domes of the historic Leiden Observatory in the evening of 2 April 2025.