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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 October 2000 |
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COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (2000)
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2000-058A (26552) Cosmos 2373 29 Sep
2000-057E (26549) 26 Sep
2000-057D (26548) 26 Sep
2000-057C (26547) 26 Sep
2000-057B (26546) 26 Sep
2000-057A (26545) 26 Sep
2000-056A (26538) Cosmos 2372 25 Sep
2000-055A (26536) NOAA 16 21 Sep
2000-054B (26495) GE 7 14 Sep
2000-054A (26494) Astra 2B 14 Sep
2000-053A (26489) STS 106 08 Sep
2000-052A (26487) Eutelsat W1 06 Sep
2000-051A (26483) Sirius 2 05 Sep
2000-050A (26481) Zhangguo Ziyuan 2 01 Sep
| 2000-058A | Cosmos 2373, also known as Kometa 20, is a Russian cartographic satellite that was launched from Baikonur by a Soyuz-U rocket at 09:30 UT. Its orbit will have a short life of 60 days during which one or more capsules carrying the films will be landing. The initial orbital parameters were period 89 min, apogee 265 km, perigee 185 km, and inclination 70.37 deg. |
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| 2000-057A, 2000-057B 2000-057C, 2000-057D 2000-057E |
A Russian rocket named Dnepr launched five microsatellites. The rocket is a modified RS-20 ICBM, known in the NATO countries as SS-18 and as Satan, and was launched from a silo in Baikonur at 10:05 UT. The five satellites are not yet matched with the International IDs, but we report them in random order as follows. Tiungsat 1 is a Malaysian remote sensing 50 kg satellite. The 56 kg Megsat is an Italian environment monitoring satellite. The 10 kg Unisat is also an Italian satellite and would aid educational advancement. The 10 kg Saudisat 1A and Saudisat 1B are Saudi Arabian educational satellites. The initial orbits of all five were similar: period 97 min, apogee 737 km, perigee 522 km, and inclination 65 deg. A later issue of the Bulletin will carry the matched names and IDs of all five. |
| 2000-056A | Cosmos 2372, also named as Yenisey and as Orlets 2, is a Russian military photo reconnaissance spacecraft that was launched by a Zenit 2 rocket from Baykonur at 10:20 UT. The 12 tonne spacecraft is fitted with 22 capsules to carry and land the high resolution photographs. Unlike previous photo reconnaissance spacecraft which had functioned only for two to three months, this one is expected to function for a year. The initial orbital parameters were period 90.1 min, apogee 364 km, perigee 220 km, and inclination 64.8 deg. |
| 2000-055A | NOAA 16 is an American weather monitoring satellite that was launched by a Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 10:22 UT. The 2,200 kg cylindrical (diameter 2 m, length 4 m) spacecraft carries several atmospheric and weather monitoring instruments. The AVHRR-3 (Advanced High Resolution Radiometer) has six wavelength channels (0.58-0.68, 0.625-1.00, 1.58-1.64, 3.55-3.93, 10.30-11.30, 11.50-12.50 microns) of which the first three monitor the backscattered solar energy, and the second three monitor the emissions from land, sea, and clouds, all with a spatial resolution of 1.1 km. The HIRS-3 (High-resolution Infrared Sounder) monitors the atmosphere at 19 closely spaced channels so as to derive the vertical temperature profile out to an altitude of 40 km. The AMSU-A and AMSU-B (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit) capture the microwave emissions. AMSU-A operates in 15 channels covering 23.8-89.0 GHz, and AMSU-B in five channels covering the 89-183 GHz band to derive the tropospheric water vapor profile. The SBUV-2 (Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet) instrument derives the ozone profile by monitoring the incident and backscattered radiation in 12 wavelength bands covering the 252-340 nm band. In addition to the atmospheric instruments, the spacecraft also carries a SEM-2 instrument to monitor kilovolt and megavolt electrons and protons. The data are stored on-board and transmitted over Fairbanks, AK and Wallops Island, VA. Initial orbital parameters were period 102.1 min, apogee 850 km, perigee 843 km, and inclination 98.8 deg. |
| 2000-054B | GE 7 is an American geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:54 UT. The two tonne spacecraft will provide direct-to-home television, voice and data transmission through its many C-band transponders after parking over 137 deg-W. |
| 2000-054A | Astra 2B is a European (Luxembourg-registered) geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:54 UT. It will provide digital video broadcasts to most of Europe through its 30 high power Ku-band transponders after parking over 28.2 deg E longitude. |
| 2000-053A | STS 106 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 13:00 UT. It carried 2.5 tonnes of cargo to dock with and deliver to the Zvezda module of the ISS. The seven-person crew of cosmonauts and astronauts worked also to unload the cargo from an earlier-launched Progress craft into the Zvezda module, and to repair, furbish, or refurbish the machines and batteries on-board the Zvezda and Zarya modules. The shuttle landed back in Cape Canaveral at 07:56 UT on 20 September, after a 12 day mission. Initial orbital parameters were period 92.2 min, apogee 386 km, perigee 375 km, and inclination 51.6 deg. |
| 2000-052A | Eutelsat W1 is a European geosynchronous communications spacecraft of that consortium that was launched by an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou at 22:33 UT. The Eutelsat-W constellation now has four members including the W2, W3, and W4 that had been launched earlier. The 1,300 kg (dry) satellite will provide voice and video transmission to Europe and southern Africa through its 28 Ku-band transponders after parking over 10 deg-E longitude. |
| 2000-051A | Sirius 2, also known as SD-RADIO 2 is an American geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 09:44 UT. It will enable S-band digital radio broadcasts (music, news, and entertainment) directly or through urban relay stations to motorists in North America. The Sirius constellation will be completed with the launch of a third spacecraft later this year. |
| 2000-050A | Zhangguo Ziyuan 2, also known as PRC 44 and as ZY 2, and meaning China Resource 2, is a Chinese remote sensing spacecraft that was launched by a Long March 4B rocket from Taiyuan launch center at 03:25 UT. It will monitor crop yields and natural disasters, and enable urban planning. Initial orbital parameters were 94.4 min, apogee 499 km, perigee 483 km, and inclination 97.4 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.
The latest addition to the GPS fleet is Navstar 48 (USA 151).
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 Decay Date (2000) 1994-050H (23210) R/B Proton-K 26 Sep 2000-053A (26489) STS 106 Landed on 20 Sep 1998-023E (25310) R/B Delta 2 17 Sep 1977-091A (10362) COSMOS 955 07 Sep 2000-051B (26484) R/B Proton-K 06 Sep 1996-037B (23941) R/B Pegasus 05 Sep 1994-021G (23049) R/B R/B Proton-K 04 Sep 1989-101E (20399) R/B that launched COSMOS 2054 03 Sep 1981-058A (12547) COSMOS 1278 02 Sep 2000-049B (26478) R/B Proton-K 30 Aug
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 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.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
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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 |