Marco Langbroek
Marco Langbroek is a Dutch archaeologist, astronomer and satellite observer, and a lecturer at Delft University of Technology. He is a well-known expert in tracking classified satellites and identifying spectacular sky phenomena.
Marco Langbroek is a Dutch archaeologist, astronomer and satellite observer. He earned his doctorate in archaeology from Leiden University in 2003, and later worked on meteorite research and then on space situational awareness at Leiden Observatory. Since 2022 he has taught optical space situational awareness at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of Delft University of Technology. He also writes a blog about his observing station (SatTrackCam Leiden), which he runs from his home in Leiden.
His work
For about twenty years, as a member of an informal international satellite-tracking group, Langbroek has worked on determining the orbits of classified military satellites. His best-known case came in 2019, when he showed that an image of an Iranian rocket launch site posted on Twitter by Donald Trump had been taken by a US KH-11 reconnaissance satellite, USA 224. He has also discovered asteroids, including one discovered from Hungary in 2013 together with Krisztián Sárneczky. The asteroid (183294) Langbroek is named after him.
Connection to the UFO/UAP topic
Langbroek is not specifically a UFO researcher, but because of his expertise he is often consulted when a spectacular sky phenomenon appears that seems mysterious at first glance. In such cases he uses orbital calculations and observational data to examine whether the phenomenon can be explained by satellites, rocket stages, fuel clouds released from rockets or reentering space debris. His approach holds that most reported lights in the sky can be identified if the necessary orbital data and observational details are available.