NASA Spacewarn Bulletin No. 632 01 July 2006

2006-027A

USA 184
is an American military reconnaissance satellite that
was launched by a Delta 4 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 03:33 UT on
28 June 2006. It is reported to have been developed and controlled
by the NRO.

2006-026A

Cosmos 2421
is a Russian military satellite that was launched by
a Tsiklon 2 rocket from Baikonur at 04:00 UT on 25 June 2006. The
initial orbital parameters were period 92.7 min, apogee 418 km,
perigee 404 km, and inclination 65.1°.

2006-025A

Progress-M 57
is a Russian automatic cargo craft that was
launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 15:08 UT on 24 June
2006. It carried three tonnes of food, fuel, water, air and
scientific equipment to the International Space Station after
docking with its PIRS module at 16:30 UT on 26 June. In
anticipation, the previously docked Progress-M 55 was evicted
and deorbited to let it burn out. Initial orbital parameters of
Progress-M 57 were period 88.6 min, apogee 245 km, perigee 193 km,
and inclination 51.7°.

2006-024A,  2006-024B,  2006-024C

USA 187, USA 188, and USA 189
are three American military
(DARPA/NRL) micro-satellites that were launched by a Delta 2
rocket from Cape Canaveral at 21:34 UT. From the information
available in some websites, this MiTEx (Micro-satellite Technology
Experiment) program actually consists of only two of these three
objects, the third being an advanced technology launcher that will
send the two to the geostationary orbit from the elliptical
transfer orbit. No further details are available.

2006-023A

Galaxy 16
is an American (PanAmSat Corp.) geostationary
communications satellite that was launched by a Zenit 3SL rocket from
the floating platform, Odyssey on the equatorial pacific ocean at
154° W longitude at 07:50 UT on 18 June 2006. The 4.6 tonne (with
fuel) satellite carries 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders to
provide standard TV and HDTV to all parts of North America, after
parking over 99° W longitude.

2006-022A

KazSat 1
is Kazakhstan’s first geostationary communications
satellite that was launched by a Russian Proton-K rocket from
Baikonur at 22:44 UT on 17 June 2006. The 1.4 tonne (with fuel) satellite
carries 12 Ku-band transponders to provide voice and video
communications throughout Kazakhstan, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and
parts of Russia.

2006-021A

RESURS DK-1
is a Russian civilian remote sensing craft that was
launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 08:00 UT on 15 June
2006. The 6.8 tonne (with fuel) satellite carries imaging
instruments to enable one-meter resolution black & white images or two-meter
resolution in color. Unlike earlier missions which captured
images on a film and dropped the canisters over Russia, this
satellite will downlink the data over selected Russian stations.
The status of natural resources, natural disasters, sea-ice
conditions, and polar weather will be promptly available to national
and international organizations, as well as to private commercial
customers. The satellite also carries an Italian cosmic ray monitor,
and a Russian instrument to identify probable electromagnetic
precursors of earthquakes. The initial orbital parameters were
period 94 min, apogee 585 km, perigee 356 km, and inclination 69.9°.

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 57, 2005-038A.

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 2005-050A, 2005-050B, and 2005-050C.

Visually bright objects.

See
http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl.
Users must register. Conditions apply.

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

Designations         Common Name                  Decay Date (2006)

2004-020A (28350)    COSMOS 2405                       16 June
2005-047A (28906)    PROGRESS-M 55                     19 June

60-day Decay Predictions.

See
http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl.
Users must register for access. Conditions apply

Miscellaneous Items.

This section contains information or 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 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