SPACEWARN Bulletin Number 499

SPACEWARN Activities

A. List of New International Designations and Launch Dates.

1995-025A  (23582) GOES-J       May 23
1995-024A  (23579) SPEKTR       May 20
1995-023A  (23571) INTELSAT 706 May 17
1995-022A  (23567) USA 110      May 14
1995-021A  (23560) ERS 2        Apr 21
1986-017JE (23558) GFZ 1        Apr 19

B. Text of Launch Announcements.

1995-025A

GOES-J, named as GOES 9 after the launch, is an American geostationary, meteorological spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral by an Atlas 1 rocket at 05:52 UT. It will cover the central United States first but later will be moved to cover either the east coast or the west coast. (Now GOES 7 covers the west coast, and GOES 8 the west coast.) The instruments on board will provide cloud cover images, and monitor atmospheric temperatures and moistures at many altitudes.

1995-024A

SPEKTR, a Russian module to be docked with MIR station, was launched from Baykonur cosmodrome by a Proton-K rocket at 05:33 UT. The 23.5 tonne spacecraft will remain with MIR for at least three years. It carries a Belgian grating spectrometer MIRAS that will monitor atmospheric gases such as ozone, carbon dioxide, freon, and sulfur. It also carries some American equipments to implement MIR-Shuttle rendezvous scheduled for later this year. Initial orbital parameters were period 89.8 min, apogee 337 km, perigee 221 km, and inclination 51.7 deg.

1995-023A

INTELSAT 706 is a geostationary communications spacecraft of the INTELSAT consortium, and was launched from Kourou in French Guiana by an Ariane rocket at 12:34 UT. The 4-tonne spacecraft will be parked over the Atlantic ocean, and has the capability to relay 110,000 telephone calls simultaneously.

1995-022A

USA 110 is an American military spacecraft that was launched by a Titan-4 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFB at 13:45 UT.

1995-021A

ERS 2 is ESA's Earth resources spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane rocket from Kourou Space Center in French Guiana at 01:44 UT. The 2,516 kg spacecraft carries a synthetic aperture radar for topographic studies, a wide beam radar (both in the C-band), a radar altimeter for measuring ocean surface and waves, a radiometer for measuring ocean surface temperatures, and an optical Global Ozone Monitor (GOME) that will monitor ozone and ozone-destroying gases and carries reflectors for laser tracking. It has a 6.5 gigabit tape recorder to record data from a full orbit. Initial orbital parameters of the Sun-synchronous orbit were period 100 min , apogee 794 km, perigee 771 km, and inclination 98.6 deg.

1986-017JE

GFZ 1 is a German microsatellite which was released from the Russian MIR station. It carries reflectors for laser-ranged, gravitational studies. Its orbital parameters are presumed to be close to those of MIR. The international ID is a derivative of the MIR ID, 1986-017A.

C. Spacecraft Particularly Suited for International Participation

Category I

1. Spacecraft with essentially continuous radio beacons on frequencies less than 150 MHz, or higher frequencies if especially suited for ionospheric or geodetic studies. To see a list select here.
2. Global Positioning System satellites useful for navigational purposes and geodetic studies. To see a list select here.

   *The GPS 2-NN series orbit in six distinct planes that are about 60 deg apart. Each plane has four "slots." Following are the 2-NN members in the planes/ slots. The RAAN decreases by about 1.0 deg each month; below are their 24 May, 95 RAAN longitudes.

   PLANE    RAAN OF PLANE     SLOT-1     SLOT-2      SLOT-3      SLOT-4
   
     A          *243           2-21       2-12        2-15        2-04
     B          *303           2-18       2-07        2-02        2-22
     C          *  5           2-24       2-13        2-19        2-20
     D          * 67           2-11       2-09        2-05        2-23
     E          *125           2-01       2-08        2-03        2-10
     F          *185           2-16       2-14        2-06        2-17
   

3. Russian Global Navigational (Positioning) Spacecraft, GLONASS constellation. To see a list select here.

   The GLONASS NNN series orbit in three distinct planes that are 120 deg apart. Each plane has eight "slots". Following are the members of the planes/slots.

          Plane1               Plane2              Plane3
   slot1   771         slot 9              slot17   760
   slot2   757         slot10              slot18   758
   slot3   763         slot11              slot19   777
   slot4   762         slot12   767        slot20   765
   slot5   249         slot13              slot21   756
   slot6   764         slot14   770        slot22   766
   slot7   759         slot15              slot23   761
   slot8   769         slot16   775        slot24   774
   

   Coordinational Scientific Information Center (CSIC) Russian Space Forces
   E-mail: sfcsic@iki3.bitnet; sfcsic@iki3.iki.rssi.ru; sfcsic@mx.iki.rssi.ru
   Home page WWW.IKI: http://www.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/SFCSIC_main.html

4. Actual decays/landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B) only. Additional information is not available.

   Designations         Common Name                    1995
   
   1994-060F (23272)  SL-12 Rocket Body               19 May
   1994-069E (23338)  SL-12 Rocket Body               11 May
   1994-064B (23306)  ATLAS 2 Rocket Body             11 May
   1985-004D (15481)  SL-6 Rocket Body                24 Apr
   

5. Miscellaneous Items. (This section contains information/data that are entered on occasion and may not be repeated in each issue of the SPACEWARN Bulletin.)

   NSSDC/WDC-A-R&S is an archival center for science data from many spacecraft. Some data are on line for electronic access. Please contact the NSSDC Request Coordination Office, Code 633, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland, 20771, U.S.A., for specific information (REQUEST@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV). Precomputed trajectory files and orbital parameters of many magnetospheric and heliospheric science-payload spacecraft may be FTP'ed from NSSDC's ANON_DIR:[000000.ACTIVE] and its several subdirectories. (See About the SPACEWARN Bulletin for access method; a file in the ACTIVE directory named AAREADME.DOC, outlines the contents.)

Questions/comments about the content of these pages should be directed to: The World Warning Agency for Satellites, wwas@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov National Space Science Data Center, Mail Code 633 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771

NASA Official: J. H. King, joe.king@gsfc.nasa.gov
Last updated: 06 June 1995, EVB II