Status Report

SPACEWARN Bulletin 594

By SpaceRef Editor

May 2, 2003

Filed under Spacewarn Bulletin, US

SPACEWARN Activities

All information in this publication was received between
1 April 2003 and 30 April 2003.

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)
  ---------------------------------------------------------
   2003-017A    (27782)  GALEX                28 April 2003
   2003-016A    (27781)  Soyuz TMA-2          26 April 2003
   2003-015A    (27775)  Cosmos 2397          24 April 2003
   2003-014A    (27718)  Asiasat 4            12 April 2003
   2003-013B    (27715)  Galaxy 12            09 April 2003
   2003-013A    (27714)  INSAT 3A             09 April 2003
   2003-012A    (27711)  USA 169              09 April 2003
   2003-011A    (27707)  Molniya 1-92         09 April 2003

B. Text of Launch Announcements.

2003-017A	GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) is an American (NASA) astronomy spacecraft that was launched at 12:00 UT on 28 April 2003 by a Pegasus XL rocket released from a L-1011 cargo plane flying out of Cape Canaveral. It is a 280 kg, 290 W, triaxially-stabilized satellite, and carried a UV telescope. The initial orbital parameters were period 98.6 min, apogee 697 km, perigee 691 km, and inclination 29.0°. UV Telescope: GALEX carries a single f/6.0, Richey-Chretien UV telescope, with a 50-cm diameter primary, and a 22-cm secondary mirror. Beam-splitters direct the Near UV (NUV) and Far UV (FUV) components to separate photoelectric detectors of diameter 6.5 cm. In each, the photoelectrons are multiplied by a microchannel plate, and detected by the anode grid. The grid enables determination of the exact position of electron impact, by the time delay of each pulse at the two ends. The telescope has a field of view of 1.2°, and a resolution of 5 arc-s, and enables either imaging or spectral composition of a single star/galaxy by a rotatable wheel containing a clear window and a Grism. (A Grism is a cross between a grating and a prism.) The Principal Investigator is Chris Martin of CalTech; the Project Manager is Jim Fanson of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The URL, http://www.galex.caltech.edu/ provides a detailed description of the instrument and the publicly available data products at the Mult-mission Archive at Space Telescope Science Institute: http://archive.stsci.edu/.
2003-016A	Soyuz TMA-2 is a Russian passenger transport craft that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 03:54 UT on 26 April 2003. It carried two astronauts, one Russian and one American, for a six-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS), performing microgravity biology experiments. It docked with the ISS at about 07:00 UT on 28 April 2003. The previous three-man crew in ISS will leave the station on 4 May 2003 on the earlier Soyuz TMA-1 that has remained docked. The initial orbital parameters of Soyuz TMA-2 were period 90.6 min, apogee 358.5 km, perigee 254.2 km, and inclination 51.6°.
2003-015A	Cosmos 2397 is a Russian geostationary military satellite that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 04:23 UT on 24 April 2003. It was inserted into geostationary orbit at 11:00 UT on the same day. The Moscow Kommersat uses the name US-KMO for the series of four such spacecraft in geostationary orbit, and US-KS for the older eight in highly elliptical orbit, all of which are for early warning of missile launches. It also reports that Cosmos 2397 will ensure total global coverage of missile launches, filling out a gap over the Pacific region.
2003-014A	Asiasat 4 is an American geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by an Atlas 3B rocket from Cape Canaveral at 01:47 UT on 12 April 2003. The 9.5 kW satellite will provide direct-to-home voice and video broadcast to about 40 countries from the Middle East to New Zealand through its 28 C-band, and 20 Ku-band transponders after parking over 122° E longitude.
2003-013B	Galaxy 12 is an American (PanAmSat Corp.) geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou on 9 April 2003. The 1.8 tonne satellite carries 24 C-band transponders to provide voice, video and data transmissions to North and South America, after parking over 72° W longitude.
2003-013A	INSAT 3A is an Indian (ISRO) geostationary communications and weather-monitoring satellite that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:52 UT on 9 April 2003. The 3-tonne satellite carries 12 C-band, 6 Extended C-band, and 6 Ku-band transponders to provide voice, video and data transmission to West Asia, East Asia, and India, after parking over 93.5° E longitude. INSAT 3A carries also the usual INSAT package of sensors in visual, infrared and water vapor bands to monitor clouds and storms. The spatial resolution at visual wavelengths is 2 km, and at infrared 1 km. The satellite also carries a separate transponder for the international search and rescue program.
2003-012A	USA 169 is an American military geostationary, super-secure communications satellite that was launched by a Titan 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS at 13:43 UT on 8 April 2003. The 4.5 tonne satellite is also known as Milstar 6 (MILitary Strategic and TActical Relay satellite 6). With the end of the cold war, Milstars are no longer engineered for “heroic survivability”. No further details are available.
2003-011A	Molniya 1-92 is a Russian military communications spacecraft that was launched from Plesetsk by a Molniya-M rocket at 01:53 UT on 2 April 2003. Initial orbital parameters were period 718 min, apogee 39,733 km, perigee 634 km, and inclination 62.9°.

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.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 51 (GPS 2R-8), 2003-005A.
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.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/english.html
maintained by the Coordinational Scientific Information Center (CSIC), Russian
Space Forces.
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 (2003)

1996-027A (23857)  BEPPOSAX                               30 April
2003-016B (27782)  R/B Soyuz-U                            28 April
1998-014B (25240)  R/B Atlas 2AS/Centaur                  27 April
2003-015B (27776)  R/B(1) Proton-K                        26 April
2002-044B (27529)  R/B Atlas 2AS/Centaur                  03 April

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. (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 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

SpaceRef Editor

SpaceRef staff editor.

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