 |
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 |
| 01 January 2000 |
|---|
1999-073A (26042) Cosmos 2368 27 December 99
1999-072A (26040) Cosmos 2367 26 December 99
1999-071A (26038) Galaxy 11 22 December 99
1999-070B (26033) ACRIMSAT 21 December 99
1999-070A (26032) KOMPSAT 21 December 99
1999-069A (25996) STS 103 20 December 99
1999-068A (25994) Terra 18 December 99
1999-067A (25991) DMSP F15 (USA 147) 12 December 99
1999-066A (25989) XMM 10 December 99
1999-065G (25986) ORBCOMM-G 04 December 99
1999-065F (25985) ORBCOMM-F 04 December 99
1999-065E (25984) ORBCOMM-E 04 December 99
1999-065D (25983) ORBCOMM-D 04 December 99
1999-065C (25982) ORBCOMM-C 04 December 99
1999-065B (25981) ORBCOMM-B 04 December 99
1999-065A (25980) ORBCOMM-A 04 December 99
1999-064B (25978) Clementine 03 December 99
1999-064A (25977) Helios 1B 03 December 99
| 1999-073A | Cosmos 2368 is a Russian military reconnoissance spacecraft that was launched by a Molniya-M rocket from Plesetsk at 19:12 UT. It is said to belong to the "Oko class", designed to provide early warning of missile launches. Initial orbital parameters were period 716 min, apogee 39,717 km, perigee 557 km, and inclination 63 deg. |
|---|---|
| 1999-072A | Cosmos 2367 is a Russian military reconnaissance satellite that was launched from Baikonur at 08:00 UT by a Tsiklon 2 rocket, a converted ICBM. Initial orbital parameters were period 92.8 min, apogee 418 km, perigee 404 km, and inclination 65 deg. |
| 1999-071A | Galaxy 11 is an American geostationary communication spacecraft that was launched from Kourou by an Ariane 4 rocket. The 2,775 kg, 10.4 kW spacecraft carries 24 C-band (20 W), and 40 Ku-band (24 at 75 W, and 16 at 140 W) transponders to provide voice and video communications to North America and Brazil, after parking eventually over 91 deg-W longitude. |
| 1999-070B | ACRIMSAT is an American satellite to ascertain the extent of solar radiation variability, and was launched by a Taurus rocket from Vandenberg AFB. It carries an ACRIM-3 (Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor) instrument to monitor solar irradiance at high accuracy (<0.1%) as a long term followup to the ACRIM-2 (carried on UARS spacecraft since 1991) and ACRIM-1 (carried on the SMM spacecraft in 1980). Further information is available by contacting acrim-info@jpl.nasa.gov. Initial orbital parameters were period 99 min, apogee 727 km, perigee 683 km, and inclination 98.3 deg. |
| 1999-070A | KOMPSAT is an experimental S. Korean spacecraft that was launched from Vandenberg AFB by a Taurus rocket. The satellite carries remote sensing instruments for providing digital cartography of Korea, and status of marine biology. (The same rocket also released three dozen capsules, each holding 200 gm of cremated remains, at a price of $4,800/per capsule.) Initial orbital parameters were 98.8 min, apogee 710 km, perigee 688 km, and inclination 98.3 deg. |
| 1999-069A | STS 103 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 00:50 UT, after nine cancellations of earlier attempts during the month. The main mission was to repair the inoperational Hubble spacecraft: replace all six gyroscopes, including the four recently failed ones (that engendered total shut down since 13 November 1999), replace its computer system, replace the voltage and temperature controls on its battery packs, and install an additional onboard data recorder of 12 gigabyte capacity. Replacement of the degraded exterior insulation on Hubble entailed a few hours of EVAs by the crew. This was the third repair mission to Hubble; the earlier ones were during December 1993 (STS 61), and February 1997 (STS 82). (The shuttle also carried a disk containing posters that were autographed by hundreds of thousands of elementary school children.) It landed back at Cape Canaveral on 28 December at 00:01 UT, after successfully completing the eight day mission. Hubble is expected to be operational in late January 2000. The initial orbital parameters of STS 103 were period 96.4 min, apogee 609 km, perigee 563 km, and inclination 28.5 deg. |
| 1999-068A | Terra is an American (jointly with Japan, and Canada) weather spacecraft that was launched by an Atlas 2AS rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 19:00 UT. The 4,864 kg spacecraft carries an array of instruments to monitor clouds, aerosals, and solar radaition balance. The CERES (Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System) will monitor radiation balance by means of scanning radiometers and bolometers; the MISR (Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer) will measure reflectance of cloud tops and aerosols, and vegetation in four spectral bands in each of the nine cameras aimed at different angles; the MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) will monitor physical and biological processes by means of a scanning spectrometer in 36 spectral bands in visible and infrared wavelengths; the ASTER (Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) will monitor land, oceans, ice and clouds in 14 visible and infrared bands; and MOPITT (Measurement Of Pollution In The Troposphere) will monitor carbon dioxide and methane. TERRA and other EOS missions form the core of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. More information is available in http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/terra/terra.htm. High and low resolution images from TERRA will be available for downloading from http://lmms.external.lmco.com/photos/. (lmms stands for Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space.) Initial parameters of the Sun-synchronous orbit were period 98.1 min, apogee 685 km, perigee 654 km, and inclination 98.2 deg. |
| 1999-067A | DMSP F15 (USA 147) is an American quasi-military spacecraft that was launched by a Titan rocket from Vandenberg AFB. The 840 km satellite carries visible, infra-red and microwave imagers to monitor weather status. Like the earlier versions in the DMSP series, this also carriers instruments to monitor auroral zone precipitation of energetic particles. The operational and data archival responsibilities will be transferred to the civilian agency, NOAA. A source of further information on data archival is http://web.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/dmsp.html. Initial orbital parameters were period 101.8 min, apogee 851 km, perigee 837 km, and inclination 98.9 deg. |
| 1999-066A | XMM (X-ray Multimirror Mission) is an astronomy spacecraft of the European Space Agency and was launched by a 746 tonne Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 14:32 UT. It is the first launch of a functional spacecraft by this latest model. The 3.7 tonne spacecraft carries three 13 meter long, 4.5 meter diameter (tapering down to a smaller diameter near the focal plane) X-ray telescopes. Each of these cone shaped telescopes carry 58 concentric reflectors of progressively smaller diameters, with each annular space of 2-4 mm thickness sandwiched between adjacent reflecting surfaces. At the focal plane are situated three X-ray cameras, one for each telescope. These cameras, named EPIC (European Photon Imaging Camera) have CCD detectors. Each of two of the detectors carry seven silicon chip wafers, each of which is made up of a matrix of 600 x 600 thin (40 micron) MOS pixels; they respond to the soft X-rays. The third detector has a single wafer of a thick (300 micron) "PN-CCD" with 400 x 400 pixels, responding to the harder X-rays. The area of the PN-CCD array is 36 sq-cm. The pointing accuracy of the telescope array is 0.25 seconds of arc, sustainable during a 10-second period. Two of these three imaging telescopes have a complementary role also: to provide X-ray spectra through Reflecting Grating Spectrometers (RGS), each containing 600 grooves/mm. About half of the X-rays entering each telescope is piped out into these RGS. Finally, these X-ray observations are complemented by an Optical Monitor (OM) telescope, equiped with CCD detectors and covering visible and UV wavelengths. The 30 cm aperture camera has a field of view of 17 x 17 arc min (about the same as the X-ray cameras). For more details of the instruments and status, see http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es , and http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/. The initial orbital parameters were period 48 hr, apogee 114,000 km, perigee 7,365 km and inclination 38.7 deg. |
| 1999-065A, 1999-065B, 1999-065C, 1999-065D, 1999-065E, 1999-065F, 1999-065G |
ORBCOMM-A, -B, -C, -D, -E, -F and -G are American low earth orbit communications spacecraft that were launched by a Pegasus XL rocket carried aloft on a L-1011 cargo plane flying out of Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia State, USA, at 18:54 UT. The fleet enables communications of data and messages from/to remote land and ocean sites. Initial orbital parameters of all were similar: period 101.5 min, apogee 834 km, perigee 830 km, and inclination 45 deg. |
| 1999-064B | Clementine is a French research spacecraft that was launched along with Helios 1B (see below). The 50 kg spacecraft will monitor Earth's "radio-electric environment". Initial orbital parameters were period 97.8 min, apogee 664 km, perigee 650 km, and inclination 98.1 deg. |
| 1999-064A | Helios 1B is a French military photo-reconnoissance spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane rocket at 16:22 UT. Initial orbital parameters were period 98.4 min, apogee 682 km, perigee 660 km, and inclination 98.1 deg. |
Note: The full list appeared in SPX 545. The list will not be repeated in future issues until significantly revised again.
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.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html#DODSystem It provides many links to GPS related databases.
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.
Designations Common Name 1999 1999-069A (25996) STS 103 Landed on 28 Dec 1999-072B (26041) R/B Tsiklon 2 27 Dec 1999-034B (25790) R/B Titan 2 20 Dec 1988-069A (19377) MOLNIYA 1-73 16 Dec 1999-044A (25889) COSMOS 2365 15 Dec 1997-079A (25088) COSMOS 2347 12 Dec 1999-052B (25923) R/B Ariane 44LP 11 Dec 1993-074C (22924) R/B Atlas 2-Centaur 05 Dec
Mars Polar Lander (1999-001A) and the two associated surface-penetrating microprobes were presumed lost after reaching Mars on 3 December 1999. Communication was not re-established with any of the craft following presumed atmospheric entries. They were to look for subsurface ice and layering and collect meteorological data.
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 accessed via anonymous FTP from NSSDC. (See About the SPACEWARN Bulletin for access method; a file in the active directory named AAREADME.TXT, outlines the contents.)
Other files interest for Earth-centered spacecraft can be generated thru 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/
|
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 |