[X] My Assistant

[gndonald]

The recent report on how the third stage of the Chang'e 2 booster reminded me of a case that pre-dated the 2002 detection of the Apollo 12 third stage. I cannot remember the full details but I think the satellite in question was called W.I.N.D and was actually mistaken for an Earth-impacting asteroid and was only identified as a spacecraft when a brightening of the surface was matched with the firing of attitude thrusters on the spacecraft.

Can anyone confirm my memory and out of curiousity how many other cases of this mistake are there?

ADMIN: Did you try Googling the answer first? There are several examples related to your question.

NB: Forum Rule 2.3 "Before posting a question, use Google to attempt to answer it yourself...."

[Floyd]

Thanks Christopher for your informative post and welcome to UMSF!