SPACEWARN Bulletin 578 – 3 Jan 2002
SPACEWARN Activities
All information in this publication was received between
1 December 2001 and 31 December 2001.
A. List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UTC).
USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (2001)
--------------------------------------------------------
2001-058F (27060) Payload F 28 December
2001-058E (27059) Payload E 28 December
2001-058D (27058) Payload D 28 December
2001-058C (27057) Payload C 28 December
2001-058B (27056) Payload B 28 December
2001-058A (27055) Payload A 28 December
2001-057A (27053) Cosmos 2383 21 December
2001-056E (27005) Reflector 10 December
2001-056D (26704) MAROC-TUBSAT 10 December
2001-056C (26703) BADR 2 10 December
2001-056B (26702) Kompass 10 December
2001-056A (26701) Meteor-3M 10 December
2001-055B (26998) TIMED 07 December
2001-055A (26997) Jason 1 07 December
2001-054B (26996) STARSHINE 2 16 December
2001-054A (26995) STS 108 05 December
2001-053C (26989) Cosmos 2380 01 December
2001-053B (26988) Cosmos 2381 01 December
2001-053A (26987) Cosmos 2382 01 December
B. Text of Launch Announcements.
| 2001-058F, 2001-058E, 2001-058D, 2001-058C 2001-058B, 2001-058A |
Payload A, B, C, D, E, and F are tentative names for the six satellites that were launched by a Tsiklon 3 rocket from Plesetsk at 04:09 UT on 28 December. The identification of names of these Russian satellites with the IDs by the USSPACECOM may be delayed for weeks. In the meantime, we have ascertained that three of them are Cosmos spacecraft (Cosmos 2384, Cosmos 2385, and Cosmos 2386) and the other three are Gonets-D1 spacecraft. There have been six Gonets-D1s (Gonets-D1 1, -D1 2, -D1-3, -D1 4, -D1 5, and -D1 6) in orbit, so the latest are likely to carry -D1 7, -D1 8, and -D1 9. All three Cosmos’ are Russian military communications spacecraft; the Gonets’ are civilian reconnaissance/communications spacecraft to locate and report natural and man-made environmental disasters around the world, and to relay messages from/to mobile telephones, like the earlier six Gonets are doing. The next issue of the Spacewarn Bulletin, SPX.579 may carry the matched names and IDs. The initial orbital parameters of the circular orbits of all six were closely similar: period 114 min, apogee 1,447 km, perigee 1,415 km, and inclination 82.5 deg. |
|---|---|
| 2001-057A | Cosmos 2383 is a Russian military spacecraft that was launched by a Tsiklon 2 rocket from Baikonur at 04:00 UT on 21 December 2001. The initial orbital parameters of the circular orbit were period 92.8 min, altitude 410 km, and inclination 65 deg. |
| 2001-056E | Reflector is an American microsatellite that was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baikonur at 17:19 UT on 10 December 2001. No additional information is available at this time. The initial orbital parameters were period 105 min, apogee 1,014 km, perigee 985 km, and inclination 99.7 deg. |
| 2001-056D | MAROC-TUBSAT is a Moroccan microsatellite that was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baikonur at 17:19 UT on 10 December 2001. It is to test a three-dimensional attitude control system that will be incorporated in a future remote sensing mission. The initial orbital parameters were period 105 min, apogee 1,014 km, perigee 986 km, and inclination 99.7 deg. |
| 2001-056C | BADR 2 is a Pakistani microsatellite that was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baikonur at 17:19 UT on 10 December 2001. The 68 kg satellite is intended to ascertain and update the status of ground based receiving/commanding stations, and to test remote sensing CCD instruments. The initial orbital parameters were period 105 min, apogee 1,014 km, perigee 986 km, and inclination 99.7 deg. |
| 2001-056B | Kompass is a Russian microsatellite that was launch by a Zenit rocket from Baikonur at 17:19 UT on 10 December 2001. It is to explore Earthquake prediction capabilities. The initial orbital parameters were period 105 min, apogee 1,014 km, perigee 987 km, and inclination 99.7 deg. |
| 2001-056A | Meteor-3M is a Russian environment/atmosphere monitoring meteorological satellite that was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baikonur at 17:19 UT on 10 December 2001. The initial orbital parameters were period 105 min, apogee 1016 km, perigee 996 km, and inclination 99.7 deg. |
| 2001-055B | TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) is an American (NASA) ionospheric research satellite that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 15:07 UT on 7 December 2001. The 587 kg, 400 W, 1.6 m wide, and 1.2 m deep spacecraft carries four instruments: GUVI (Global UltraViolet Imager), SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry), SEE (Solar Extreme ultraviolet Experiment) and TIDI, (TImed Doppler Interferometer). The GUVI will monitor auroral and airglow lines with a spatial scanning spectrometer to assess the atomic/molecular composition and temperature profile in the upper atmosphere. The SABER is a 10-channel infrared radiometer to monitor the heat emitted by the upper atmosphere in the 1.27 – 17 micron wavelength band. The SEE will monitor the solar irradiance in the UV and soft X-ray bands. The TIDI will extract the Doppler shift in atomic and molecular lines at four perpendicular directions to infer the prevailing wind speed. More details are available in http://www.timed.jhuapl.edu/. The spacecraft has a data storage capacity of 5 Gbits and will downlink the data mainly over the APL at a rate of 4 Mbits/sec. The initial orbital parameters were period 97.3 min, apogee 628 min, perigee 627 km, and inclination 74.1 deg. |
| 2001-055A | Jason 1 is an American-French (NASA-CNES) oceanographic satellite that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB 15:07 UT on 7 December 2001. It is intended to supplement and extend the TOPEX/Poseidon mission results by monitoring the sea surface level and wave heights. The 500 kg, 1.0 kW, triaxially-stabilized spacecraft carries five instruments. There are two radar altimeters: the CNES Poseidon-2 Altimeter at 13.65 GHz and a NASA TOPEX Altimeter at 13.6 and 5.3 GHz, both measuring the sea surface with an accuracy of 4.2 cm. The NASA Jason Microwave Radiometer (JMR) enables water vapor measurement along the altimeter path so as to correct the echo time. The CNES DORIS Doppler tracking antenna receives ground signals for precise determination of the satellite altitude after correction for ionospheric delays. The NASA BlackJack GPS receiver provides accurate location of the satellite. Finally, the NASA laser retroreflector array works with ground stations to track the satellite and calibrate/verify the altimeter measurements. The data from Jason 1 will be made available through NASA/JPL and CNES. Data dumps will be made over Poker Flats, Alaska, and Wallops Island, Virginia. For more details see http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/jason-1.html. The initial orbital parameters were period 112 min, apogee 1,340 km, perigee 1,328 km, and inclination 66 deg. |
| 2001-054B | STARSHINE 2 is an American, high school educational microsatellite that was launched from STS 108 on 16 December 2001. It was built with the participation of 25,000 students in 26 countries. No further details are available, but it is expected to be very similar to the STARSHINE 3 (2001-043A) that was launched in September 2001. The initial orbital parameters were period 92.1 min, apogee 389 km, perigee 361 km, and inclination 51.6 deg. |
| 2001-054A | STS 108 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 22:19 UT on 5 December 2001. It carried a crew of seven astronauts (one Russian and six American) and three tonnes of food and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS), and docked with it at 19:59 UT on 7 December 2001. It is the twelfth shuttle mission to the ISS, and carried an Italian cargo module that was attached to the Unity module of the ISS. Later the cargo was transferred to the Destiny laboratory. The crew did a spacewalk to install a thermal blanket over the Beta Gimbal Assemblies (BGAs) at the base of the solar panels that are intended to direct the panels sunward at an optimal angle. It carried also a STARSHINE 2 microsatellite for release. In addition, the shuttle carried four GAS (Get Away Special) containers, one with seven experiments from Utah State University students, the second with three experiments from Penn State University students, the third with Swedish Space Corp. experiments, and the fourth with NASA/Ames experiments. An animal enclosure module carried a few mice and a bird module some quail eggs. The STS landed back in Cape Canaveral at 17:55 UT on 17 December 2001, with the crew that included three astronauts (two Russian and one American) that had spent 129 days on the ISS. The initial orbital parameters were period 92 min, apogee 377 km, perigee 353 km, and inclination 51.6 deg. |
| 2001-053C, 2001-053B, 2001-053A |
Cosmos 2380, 2381, and 2382 are the latest trio to join the current Russian fleet of Glonass satellites. They were launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 18:00 UT on 1 December 2001. These Cosmos series spacecraft have another model name also: two of them are called Uragan class and the third an enhanced Uragan-M class. According to some reports, the nominally complete fleet of 24 have now only nine fully functional spacecraft. (See Section C-3 for an outline of the Glonass fleet.) The latest trio has been placed in Plane-1. The initial orbital parameters of all three were similar. Period 675 min, apogee 19,100 km, perigee 19,100 km, and inclination 64.8 deg |
C. Spacecraft Particularly Suited for International Participation
- 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.govThe 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.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html#DODSystem
It provides many links to GPS related databases. - 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
(nnnn) 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 appeared in SPX-545. It
will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source at:
http://www.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/english.html
maintained by the Coordinational
Scientific Information Center (CSIC),Russian Space Forces.The latest addition to the GLONASS fleet are Cosmos 2380, Cosmos 2381, and
Cosmos 2382. - Visually bright objects.
A comprehensive list of visually bright
objects with their two-line orbital elements is available from USSPACECOM, via a
NASA site, http://oig1.gsfc.nasa.gov/files/visible.tle. The list, however,
does not include visual magnitudes, but are expected to be brighter than
magnitude 5. - Actual decays/landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B)
only. No further information is available.Designations Common Name Decay Date (2001) 2000-049E (26501) R/B (Aux) Proton-K 30 Dec 1970-109B (04802) R/B Diamant B 21 Dec 1982-083E (13446) R/B(2) that launched MOLNIYA 3-19 21 Dec 2001-054A (26995) STS 108 landed on 17 Dec 1989-043A (20052) MOLNIYA 3-35 14 Dec 1992-007A (21867) JERS 1 03 Dec 2001-053D (26990) R/B(1) Proton-K 02 Dec
- 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,
http://oig1.gsfc.nasa.gov/scripts/foxweb.exe/app01?.
as follows:- Select “OIG Main Page”.
- Select “Send Message to System administrator”, who will provide a login account.
- After getting an ID and a Password, click on “Registered User Login”.
(Step (2) is not needed after obtaining an account.) - Select “Continue”.
- Select “General information”.
- Select “Reports”.
- Select “Sixty Day Decay…”.
Note: The login requirement is enforced due to the events on 11 September 2001.
- Miscellaneous Items. (This section contains information/data that
are entered on occasion and may not be repeated in each issue of the
SPACEWARN Bulletin.) - 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 interest for Earth-centered spacecraft can be generated through 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.htmlMagnetospheric, Planetary, and Astronomical science data from many spacecraft
may be accessed through links from the URL:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/sc-query.html
