SPACEWARN Bulletin Number 573
A publication of NASA’s National Space Science Data Center/World Data Center for Satellite Information as the WWAS for ISES/COSPAR
SPACEWARN Activities
All information in this publication was received between
1 July 2001 and 31 July 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)
-------------------------------------------------------
2001-032A (26873) Coronas-F 31 July
2001-031A (26871) GOES 12 23 July
2001-030A (26867) Molniya-3K 20 July
2001-029B (26864) BSat 2B 12 July
2001-029A (26863) Artimes 12 July
2001-028A (26862) STS 104 12 July
B. Text of Launch Announcements.
| 2001-032A | Coronas-F (also known as Koronas-F, and AUS-SM-KF) is a Russian solar observatory that was launched by a Tsiklon 3 rocket from Plesetsk at 08:00 UT on 31 July 2001. The 2,260 kg (with fuel) spacecraft will be pointing toward Sun within 10 arc-minutes to conduct a variety of observations. In broad categories, it carries X-ray monitors to locate sources within 1 arc-sec, radio receivers to measure flux and polarization, and particle counters. The DIFOS The SORS instrument (Investigators: The ZENIT instrument The SUFR instrument (Investigator: T. V. Kazachevskaya, IAG) is a UV The The DIAGENESS instrument (Investigators: Y. Silvester, CBK-PAN, and The RESIK instrument (Investigator: Y. Silvester, CBK-PAB, and S. The IRIS The HELIKON The SKL The The RPS instrument Lastly, the SPR-N instrument (Investigator: I. Sobelman, More details may be obtained via A similar version of this |
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| 2001-031A | GOES 12 is an American geosynchronous weather satellite that was launched by an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral at 07:23 UT on 23 July 2001. The 980 kg, 973 W spacecraft carries an IR imager, a “sounder”, and an X-ray imager. The IR imager is a Cassegrain telescope covering five wavelength channels, 0.55-0.75, 3.80-4.00, 6.50-7.00, 10.20-11.20, and 11.50-12.50 microns. It can provide images covering 3,000 km x 3,000 km every 41 seconds, by scanning the area in 16 square kilometer sections. The “sounder” is to provide vertical distribution of temperature, moisture and ozone, by passive monitoring in 18 depth-dependent wavelengths. (Long wave IR: 14.71, 14.37, 14.06, 13.64, 13.37, 12.66, and 12.02 microns. Medium wave IR: 11.03, 9.71, 7.43, 7.02, and 6.51 microns. Short wave IR: 4.57, 4.52, 4.45, 4.13, 3.98, and 3.74 microns. There is also another band at visible wavelength 0.7 microns, just to provide pictures of cloud tops.) The sounder covers an area of 3,000 km x 3,000 km in about 42 minutes. Another instrument package named SEM (Space Environment Monitor) monitors the energetic electrons and protons in the magnetosphere and the X-rays from the Sun. The above three have been carried on the earlier GOES missions, but GOES 12 carries also an X-ray imager providing an X-ray (about 0.1-1.0 nm wavelength) picture of the solar disk. For some months, the spacecraft will be on standby, to be activated and moved to a desired longitude. The URL, http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/EBB/ml/gsensor.html carries more information on the payloads. |
| 2001-030A | Molniya-3K (named Molniya 1-K by USSPACECOM) is a Russian military communications spacecraft that was launched by a Molniya-M rocket from Plesetsk at 00:47 UT on 20 July 2001. The initial orbital parameters of the 2 tonne spacecraft were period 12 hr, 16 min, apogee 40,811 km, perigee 255 km, and inclination 62.7 deg. |
| 2001-029B | BSat 2B was intended to be Japanese geosynchronous communications spacecraft. It was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 23:58 UT on 12 July 2001. A propulsion problem in the final stage of rocket caused the 1.3 tonne satellite to orbit at a much lower altitude. Since BSAT 2B carries only one engine, an ignition of that will be inadequate to lift the orbit significantly. Currently, the orbit remains with period 317 min, apogee 17,470 km, perigee 591 km, and inclination 2.9 deg. |
| 2001-029A | Artimes was to be a European (ESA) geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 23:58 UT on 12 July 2001. A propulsion problem in the final stage resulted in the 3.1 tonne (with fuel), 2.5 kW spacecraft ending up in a much lower orbit. It however carries two engines and adequate fuel that if ignited could elevate the orbit significantly, probably to the geosynchronous altitude. If that succeeds, it will provide voice and data communications between mobile phones in Europe and North America, and act as a relaying satellite between low-Earth orbiters and ground stations. Eventually, as part of the planned EGNOS system (to be operational by about 2010) it will provide navigation/location determination like the GPS and GLONASS fleet do. The current orbital parameters are period 318 minutes, apogee 17,545 km, perigee 596 km, and inclination 3.0 deg. |
| 2001-028A | STS 104 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 09:04 UT on 12 July 2001. It carried a crew of five American astronauts and a major unit called ISS Airlock, and docked with the ISS at 03:08 UT on 14 July 2001. The six tonne Airlock is a pressurizable unit consisting of two cylinders of diameter four meters and a total length six meters. They were installed and secured by the crew during three EVAs. The Airlock can be pressurized by the externally mounted high pressure oxygen-nitrogen tanks, and will be the sole unit through which all future EVAs will take place. (Until now, all EVA entries/exits have been through a Russian module in ISS, with non-Russians having to wear Russian space suits.) Another payload was the “EarthKAM” of middle/high school interest. It will allow pupils to command picture-taking of chosen spots on Earth; they were expected to target 2,000 spots. The shuttle also carried out pulsed exhaust during maneuvers to enable better understanding of the formation of HF echoes from the shuttle exhaust. The echoes were obtained by ground based radars in an experiment called SIMPLEX (Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local EXhaust). The shuttle landed back in Cape Canaveral at 03:39 UT on 25 July 2001. The initial orbital parameters were period 92.2 min, apogee 390 km, perigee 372 km, and inclination 51.6 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. (“NNN” denotes no national name. SPACEWARN
would appreciate suggestions to update this list. An asterisk [*] denotes
changes in this issue.)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.
Entries marked “*” are updates or additions to the 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. - Visually bright objects.
A comprehensive list of visually bright
objects with their two-line orbital elements is available from USSPACECOM, via a
NASA URL, 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) 1996-056B (24323) R/B Delta 2 28 July 2001-028A (26862) STS 104 Landed on 25 July 1992-043F (22048) R/B Proton 23 July 2001-013C (26739) R/B Delta 2 09 July 2001-027B (26860) R/B Delta 2 07 July 1988-022A (18980) MOLNIYA 1-72 04 July
- 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://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/orbitsOther 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
