SPACEWARN Bulletin 584
All information in this publication was received between
1 June 2002 and 30 June 2002.
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 (UT)
--------------------------------------------------------
2002-033A (27454) Progress-M46 26 June 2002
2002-032A (27453) NOAA 17 24 June 2002
2002-031B (27451) Iridium 98 20 June 2002
2002-031A (27450) Iridium 97 20 June 2002
2002-030A (27445) Galaxy 3C 15 June 2002
2002-029A (27441) Express 4A 10 June 2002
2002-028A (27440) STS 111 05 June 2002
2002-027A (27438) Intelsat 905 05 June 2002
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2002-024B (27431) Fengyun 1D 15 May 2002
2002-024A (27430) Haiyang 1 15 May 2002
B. Text of Launch Announcements.
| 2002-033A | Progress-M46 is a Russian automatic cargo carrier that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 06:36 UT on 26 June 2002. It delivered 2.5 tonnes of fuel, food, oxygen, water and equipment to the International Space Station after docking with the ISS at 07:22 UT on 29 June 2002. The initial orbital parameters were period 88.6 min, apogee 245 km, perigee 193 km, and inclination 51.7 deg. |
|---|---|
| 2002-032A | NOAA 17 is an American (NOAA/NASA) weather satellite that was launched by Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 18:23 UT on 24 June 2002. The triaxially-stabilized, 1,500 kg (plus 760 kg fuel) satellite with a length of 4.2 m and a diameter of 1.9 m has a solar array of 16.8 square-meters that generates 830 W power. It carries several Earth weather-related instruments, named AVHRR-3, HIRS-3, AMSU-A, AMSU-B, and SBUV-2; and a space weather package named SEM. The data are stored on-board and transmitted over Fairbanks (Alaska) and Wallops Island (Virginia). The Program Manager (PM) for NOAA 17 is Karen Halterman of the Goddard Space Flight Center. (No one is listed as PS or PI.) More details on NOAA 17 are available in http://poes.gsfc.nasa.gov/campaignm/campaign_home.htm. Initial orbital parameters were period 101.2 min, apogee 823 km, perigee 807 km, and inclination 98.8 deg. AVHRR-3 (AdVanced High Resolution Radiometer 3) has six wavelength HIRS-3 (High-resolution InfraRed Sounder 3) monitors the atmosphere AMSU A/B (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, A and B) capture the SBUV-2 (Solar Back-scatter UV 2) monitors the solar irradiance and SEM-2 (Space Environment Monitor 2) carries two detectors: TED (Total SAR (Search And Rescue) instruments monitor the international |
| 2002-031A, 2002-031B | Iridium 97 and Iridium 98 are the two American Iridium communications satellites that were launched by a Rockot rocket from Plesetsk at 09:34 UT on 15 May 2002. (Rockot is a modified SS-19 ICBM.) These two 690 kg satellites augment the fleet of in-orbit spares to 14 satellites that are intended as backup to the operational fleet of 66 Iridiums. The fleet provides L-band links between mainly mobile telephones, many of which have been recently DoD/Pentagon-owned. The initial orbital parameters of both were close: period 98.0 min, apogee 670 km, perigee 658 km, and inclination 86.6 deg. |
| 2002-030A | Galaxy 3C is an American geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by a Zenit 3SL rocket from the Odyssey Launch Platform on the equatorial (154 deg-W longitude) Pacific Ocean at 22:39 UT on 15 June 2002. The 2.8 tonne satellite will provide direct-to-home broadcast of video and internet services to the subscribers in the USA and Latin America through its 24 C-band (34 W) and 53 Ku-band (120 W) transponders after parking over 95 deg-W longitude |
| 2002-029A | Express 4A (also named in the press as Express 41R and Express 41P) is a Russian geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 01:15 UT on 10 June 2002. The 1.6 tonne spacecraft will provide television and radio services in digital format to Russia and neighboring countries. |
| 2002-028A | STS 111 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 21:23 UT on 5 June 2002. It carried a crew of seven astronauts (four American, two Russian and a French) and material to the International Space Station (ISS). Three of the astronauts (one American and two Russians) will remain on ISS for four months, relieving its earlier crew of three. The crew repaired a malfunctioning gyroscope and installed debris shields on the Zvesda module. They repaired the wrist joints on the Canadian robotic arm/crane, and also facilitated its (eventual) full mobility across the full length of the ISS. The shuttle returned on 19 June 2002 to Edwards AFB in California with four of its crew, plus the three astronauts who had stayed on the ISS for over six months. The initial orbital parameters of the shuttle were period 91.9 min apogee 387 km, perigee 349 km, and inclination 51.6 deg. |
| 2002-027A | Intelsat 905 is a geostationary communications spacecraft of the international ITSO consortium that was launched by an Ariane 44L rocket from Kourou at 06:44 UT. It will provide voice, video, and internet services to all countries adjoining the Atlantic Ocean through its 72 C-band and 22 Ku-band transponders after parking over 24.5 deg-W longitude.(It replaces the aging Intelsat 603, which had been retrieved from a useless orbit by a space Shuttle crew in 1992 and ejected back to be functional till 2002.) |
| 2002-024A, 2002-024B | Haiyang 1 and Fengyun 1D are the official names of the two Chinese spacecraft that had been tentatively named as Payload A and Payload B in SPX 583. |
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.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/gps_f.html
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 (2002) 2002-033B (27455) R/B Soyuz-U 28 June 2002-008A (27382) COSMOS 2387 27 June 2002-013A (27395) PROGRESS M1-8 25 June 1978-075B (10994) R/B Titan 34B/Agena D 25 June 2002-028A (27440) STS 111 Landed back 19 June 1992-037B (22010) R/B Atlas 2/Centaur 17 June 2002-029B (27442) R/B Proton-K 12 June 2001-037E (26896) R/B (Aux. Mot.) Proton-K 07 June 2000-081D (26641) R/B Ariane 5 01 June 1990-039D (20586) R/B(2) that launched MOLNIYA 1-77 31 May 2001-045E (26940) R/B (Aux. Mot.) Proton-K 30 May 1992-032B (21990) R/B Atlas 2A/Centaur 30 May
- 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
