NASA Spacewarn Bulletin No. 634 01 September 2006

2006-034A

KoreaSat 5,
also known as Mugungwha 5, is a South Korean
geostationary satellite that was launched at 03:27 UT on 22 August
2006 by a Zenit 3SL rocket from the Odyssey platform floating on
the equatorial Pacific Ocean at 154° W longitude. The 4.5 tonne
(with fuel) satellite carries 24 Ku-band, 8 SHF-band, and 4 Ka-band
transponders to provide digital television and conventional telecom
services to the Asia-Pacific region, serving the interests of
commercial and (primarily) military agencies, after parking over
113° E longitude. (It is reported that there has not been a
KoreaSat 4, because the number four may be associated with death in some
Asian cultures. Mugungwha is the Korean name for South Korea’s
national flower, the Rose of Sharon.)

2006-033B

Syracuse 3B
is a French military geostationary satellite that
was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:24 UT on
11 August 2006. It carries four spot beams in SHF frequencies and two
spot beams in EHF frequencies. The parking longitude is not available.

2006-033A

JCSat 10
is a Japanese geostationary communications satellite
that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:14 UT on
11 August 2006. The 4.4 tonne satellite carries 30 Ku-band and
12 C-band transponders to provide direct-to-home radio and
television services to Japan, Asia-Pacific, and Hawaii, after
parking over 128° E longitude.

2006-032A

Hot Bird 8
is a European (EUTELSAT) geostationary satellite that
was launched by a Proton-M rocket from Baikonur at 21:48 UT on
04 August 2006. The 4.9 tonne (with fuel), 14 kW satellite
carries 64 Ku-band transponders to provide radio and television
coverage through 950 digital channels to Europe, North Africa,
and the Middle East after parking over 13° E longitude,
replacing Hot Bird 3.

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)

None

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