SPACEWARN Activities

2004-053A,
  2004-053B,
  2004-053C

Cosmos NNNN, Cosmos NNNN, and Cosmos NNNN are the latest of the Russian satellites to join the GLONASS fleet of navigational satellites (See Sec. C-3 for information on the fleet.) They were launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 01:54 UT on 26 December 2004. The Cosmos numbers are yet to be ascertained and matched with the IDs. They will probably be from among Cosmos 2411, 2412, and 2413. But the three have GLONASS numbers, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense website: GLONASS 712, GLONASS 796, and GLONASS 797 will be placed, respectively, in Slots 1, 7, and 8 of Plane 1. The initial orbital parameters of all three satellites were close: period 673 min, apogee 19,145 km, perigee 19,137 km, and inclination 64.85°.

2004-052C

Mikron, also known as KS5MF2, is a Russo-Ukrainian Earth surveying mini-satellite that was launched by a Tsyklon 3 rocket from Plesetsk at 11:20 UT on 24 December. It carried imaging instruments to survey the surface environment and locate natural disasters. The initial orbital parameters were period 94 min, apogee 636 km, perigee 282 km, and inclination 82.6°.

2004-052A

SICH 1M is a Russo-Ukrainian Earth surveying mini-satellite that was launched by a Tsyklon 3 rocket from Plesetsk at 11:20 UT on 24 December 2004. It carried imaging instruments to survey the surface environment and locate natural disasters. The initial orbital parameters were period 94 min, apogee 637 km, perigee 281 km, and inclination 82.6°.

2004-051A

Progress-M 51 is a Russian automatic cargo craft that was launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 22:19 UT on 23 December 2004. It carried 2.5 tonnes of food, water, fuel and equipment and docked automatically with the Zvezda module of the ISS at 23:31 UT on 25 December 2004. The initial orbital parameters were period 92 min, apogee 356 km, perigee 351 km, and inclination 51.6°.

2004-050A

USA 181, also named Demosat is a dummy/mockup of an American military satellite that was launched by a Delta 4-Heavy (720 tonne, 23-story high) rocket on a maiden flight at 21:50 UT on 21 December 2004. With a mass of 6.1 tonnes, and a cylindrical size of 2 m height and 1.4 m diameter, it has an outer aluminum skin enclosing sixty 13.7 cm diameter brass rods, both designed to ensure complete burn-out of the craft during reentry. The dummy carried two 15 kg, nano-satellites named 3CSAT 1 (also known as Sparky) and 3CSAT 2 (also known as Ralphie) built by Universities in Arizona and Colorado states, but their releases from Demosat have not been ascertained so far. The cryogenic upper stage failed to inject the satellite into a geostationary orbit. The parameters of the orbit remained with period 1,045 min, apogee 36,420 km, perigee 19,041 km, and inclination 13.5°.

2004-049B,
  2004-049C,
  2004-049D,
  2004-049E,
  2004-049F,
  2004-049G

Nanosat 1, ESSAIM 1, ESSAIM 2, ESSAIM 3, ESSAIM 4, and PARASOL are six small satellites that were launched by an Ariane 5G rocket from Kourou at 16:26 UT on 18 December 2004.

Nanosat 1, a Spanish nanosatellite, is a 15 kg, 20 W craft that will help maintain contact with the Spanish zone in Antarctica.

ESSAIM 1, 2, 3, and 4 are French military microsatellites, each of mass 120 kg. They are demonstration models to map the "electro-magnetic environment of the Earth's surface". The design of the next generation ESSAIMs will be based on the performance of the models.

PARASOL (Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Science coupled with Observations from LIDAR) is a French (CNES) mini-satellite of mass 120 kg that will provide data on the physical properties of clouds and aerosols.

The orbital parameters of all these six microsatellites were close: period 98 min, apogee 666 km, perigee 657 km, and inclination 98.1°.

2004-049A

Helios 2A is a French, military, photo-reconnaissance satellite that was launched by an Ariane 5G rocket from Kourou at 16:26 UT on 18 December 2004. It is the first of such satellites to provide the European Union an independent military intelligence capability. The 4.2 tonne satellite carries imagers in the visible and infrared bands. The initial orbital parameters were period 98 min, apogee 683 km, perigee 681 km, and inclination 98.1°.

2004-048A

AMC 16 is an American geostationary communications satellite that was launched by an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 12:07 UT on 17 December 2004. It carries 24 Ku-band transponders to provide direct to home video communications to all of North America, after parking over 85° W longitude.

1997-061C

Huygens is a atmospheric probe that was released from Cassini spacecraft (1997-061A) that was orbiting around Saturn, towards its satellite, Titan at 03:24 UT on 25 December 2004. It will reach Titan's surface around 14 January 2005. For more details of the probe's instruments and performance, see SPX.528, and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.

Spacecraft with essentially continuous radio beacons on frequencies less than 150 MHz, or higher frequencies if especially suited for ionospheric or geodetic studies.

NNSS denotes U.S. Navy Navigational Satellite System. Updates or corrections to the list are possible only with information from the user community.

Note: The full list appeared in SPX 545. The list will not be repeated in future issues until significantly revised again.

Global Positioning System satellites useful for navigational purposes and geodetic studies.

High precision (<20 cm) GPS constellation tracking data obtained from the network of about 80 dedicated global stations that are of interest to geodetic study may be obtained through the following services provided by the International Association of Geodesy (IGS)

     FTP:    igscb.jpl.nasa.gov  [directory /igscb]
     WWW:    http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/
     E-mail: igscb@cobra.jpl.nasa.gov

The standard format of the GPS situation appeared in SPX-518. It will not be repeated since an excellent source of trajectory- and science-related GPS information is at:

http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/gps_f.html

It provides many links to GPS related databases.

The latest addition to the fleet is Navstar 54, 2004-009A.

Russian Global Navigational (Positioning) Spacecraft, GLONASS constellation.

SPACEWARN requests updates/additions from readers to this list.

All GLONASS spacecraft are in the general COSMOS series. The COSMOS numbers invoked by USSPACECOM have often differed from the numbers (NNNN) associated in Russia; when different, the USSPACECOM COSMOS numbers are shown in parentheses. The corresponding GLONASS numbers are Russian numbers, followed by the numbers in parentheses that are sometimes attributed to them outside Russia.

The operating frequencies in MHz are computed from the channel number K. Frequencies (MHz) = 1602.0 + 0.5625K and L2 = 1246.0 + 0.4375K.

The standard format of the GLONASS situation last appeared in SPX-545. It will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source at: http://www.glonass-center.ru maintained by the Coordinational Scientific Information Center (CSIC), Russian Space Forces.

According to CSIC the latest addition to the fleet are GLONASS 712, GLONASS 796, and GLONASS 797. Their INternational IDs are 2004-053A, 2004-053B, and 2004-053C, not necessarily in that order.

Visually bright objects.

A comprehensive list of visually bright objects with their two-line orbital elements is available through a NASA site as follows:

1. Go to http://oig1.gsfc.nasa.gov/scripts/foxweb.exe/app01?
2. Select "OIG Main Page".
3. Select "Send Message to System administrator", who will provide a login account.
4. After getting an ID and a Password, click on "Registered User Login". (Step (3) is not needed after obtaining an account.)
5. Select "Continue".
6. Select "General information".
7. Select "Reports".
8. Select "Special Interest Group Report".
9. Select "Visible Interest Satellites" along with "Header and TLE".

The list does not provide visual magnitude, but are expected to be brighter than magnitude 5. Note: The login requirement is enforced due to the events on 11 September 2001.

Actual decays/landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B) only. No further information is available.

Designations         Common Name                  Decay Date (2004)

2001-037F (26897)  R/B(Aux.Mot.)                     19 December
2004-053D (28511)  R/B(1)                            27 December
2004-051B (28504)  R/B                               26 December
2004-047B (28486)  R/B Delta 2                       23 December
2004-032A (28399)  PROGRESS-M 50                     22 December
1990-101D (20952)  R/B Molniya                       15 December
2003-020B (27812)  R/B Atlas 5                       12 December
2000-060B (26560)  R/B Ariane 42L                    12 December
1976-066C (09017)  R/B(2) Delta 1                    06 December

60-day Decay Predictions.

The USSPACECOM forecasts and maintains a list of decays of orbiting objects expected in the next 60 days , with fair accuracy. The list may be accessed through a NASA site as follows:

1. Go to http://oig1.gsfc.nasa.gov/scripts/foxweb.exe/app01?
2. Select "OIG Main Page".
3. Select "Send Message to System administrator", who will provide a login account.
4. After getting an ID and a Password, click on "Registered User Login". (Step (3) is not needed after obtaining an account.)
5. Select "Continue".
6. Select "General information".
7. Select "Reports".
8. Select "Sixty Day Decay...".

Note: The login requirement is enforced due to the events on 11 September 2001.

Miscellaneous Items.

Major Satellite Launch Centers:

      Name               Country       Latitude     Longitude      Comments

      Cape Canaveral      USA            28.5 N      80.6 W
      Vandenberg AFB      USA            34.7 N     120.6 W  High-Inclination orbits
      Wallops             USA            36.9 N      75.5 W

      Kaputsin Yar        Russia         48.4 N      45.8 E  Inactive since '87
      Plesetsk            Russia         62.8 N      40.4 E  High-Inclination orbits
      Baikonur            Kazakhstan     45.6 N      63.2 E  a.k.a Tyuratam

      Kourou              Fr. Guiana/ESA  5.1 N      52.4 W

      Tanegashima         Japan          30.2 N      30.6 E
      Kagoshima           Japan          31.3 N     131.0 E

      Sriharikota         India          13.9 N      80.3 E

      Xichang             China (PRC)    28.3 N     102.2 E
      Taiyuan             China (PRC)    37.5 N     112.6 E
      Shuang Cheng Tzu    China (PRC)    40.6 N      99.9 E  a.k.a Jiquan

      San Marco           Kenya & Italy   2.9 N      40.3 E  A platform on ocean

      Yavne               Israel         31.5 N      34.5 E  Retrograde orbits

      Woomera             Australia      31.1 S     136.8 E  Suborbitals only since 1970.

      Odyssey             USA/Russia      0.0       154.0 W  Platform on Pacific
  

Cosmos Number Sequence:

It appears that sometimes a spacecraft with a given Cosmos Number is later renamed as something else, thereby facilitating a "recycle" of that number for a future satellite. Dr. Dieter Kaemmer of Pharmaplant Company, Germany, has kindly alerted us that according to the Russian journal Novosti Kosmonavtiki (31 May 2004), Cosmos 2405 was renamed Molniya 1T-93, and Cosmos 2406 as Raduga 1-7. This entailed the next Cosmos to become Cosmos 2405. Looking back, this renaming process may account for other duplicated Cosmos numbers, if any, in the past.

Related NSSDC resources.

NSSDC/WDC for Satellite Information is an archival center for science data from many spacecraft. Many space physics datasets are on-line for electronic access through:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/

For off-line data, please contact the Request Office, NSSDC, Code 633, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A., for specific information (request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov). Information on the current status of the instruments on board from the investigators will be most welcomed. Precomputed trajectory files and orbital parameters of many magnetospheric and heliospheric science-payload spacecraft may be obtained from:
ftp://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/orbits/

Other files of interest for Earth-centered spacecraft can be generated via the URL,
http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Programs related to the heliospheric spacecraft trajectories can be executed through the URL,
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/helios/heli.html

Magnetospheric, Planetary, and Astronomical science data from many spacecraft may be accessed through links from the URL:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/sc-query.html