All information in this publication was received between 1 April 2002 and 30 April 2002.
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (UT)
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2002-020A (27416) Soyuz TM-34 25 April 2002
2002-019A (27414) NSS 7 16 April 2002
2002-018A (27413) STS 110 08 April 2002
2002-017A (27409) Cosmos 2388 01 April 2002
| 2002-020A | Soyuz TM-34 is a Russian passenger transportation craft that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 06:26 UT on 25 April 2002. It carried one Russian and one Italian astronaut, and a South African tourist to the International Space Station (ISS). The tourist will do some biology experiments also, as he carried a live rat and sheep stem cells. All three will return in the same Soyuz after an eight-day mission. The initial orbital parameters were period 92.4 min, apogee 393 km, perigee 383 km, and inclination 51.63°. |
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| 2002-019A | NSS 7 (New Skies Satellite 7) is a European geosynchronous communications satellite that was launched by an Ariane 44LP rocket from Kourou at 23:01 UT on 16 April 2002. The 4.7 tonne satellite will provide video and internet services to North America and Europe through its 36 C-band and 36 Ku-band transponders after parking over 21.5° W longitude. It replaces NSS-K (to be abandoned) and NSS 803 (to be moved over to the Pacific). |
| 2002-018A | STS 110 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 20:44 UT on 8 April 2002. It carried a crew of seven American astronauts to the International Space Station where it docked at 16:06 UT on 9 April. The crew installed on the ISS a 13 meter, 13.5 tonne, initial segment of a long truss, and overlaid a railroad track. But the test drive of a 885 kg car on the track was not successful. It stopped after moving 5 meters, and commands to move further proved unsuccessful. Speculation has been that weightlessness of the train engendered poor electrical contact with the track. Eventually the truss and the railing will be extended to 110 meters. In addition to that primary mission, the shuttle had transported to the station 290 biological samples prepared by high school students, as part of NASA's education outreach program. The 11-day mission ended when it returned to Earth on 19 April. The initial orbital parameters of the shuttle were period 88.3 min, apogee 225 km, perigee 155 km, and inclination 51.6°. |
| 2002-017A | Cosmos 2388 is a Russian military communications satellite that was launched from Plesetsk by a Molniya-M rocket at 22:07 UT. It was the 220th launch by a Molniya-M of which 213 have proved successful. The initial orbital parameters were period 718 min, apogee 39,852, perigee 518 km, and inclination 62.9°. |
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 400 dedicated global stations that are of interest to geodetic study may be obtained through the following services provided by the International GNSS Service (IGS). The IGS is a service of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG).
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 SPACEWARN Bulletin No. 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.
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 SPACEWARN Bulletin No. 545. It will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source at: http://www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru/ maintained by the Information-Analytical Center (IAC), Russian Space Agency.
The latest addition to the GLONASS fleet are Cosmos 2380, Cosmos 2381, and Cosmos 2382.
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register. Conditions apply.
Designations Common Name Decay Date (2002) 2002-020B (27417) R/B Soyuz-U 26 Apr 2001-054B (26996) STARSHINE 2 26 Apr 1998-042A (25389) TUBSAT N 22 Apr 2001-045F (26941) R/B (Aux) 20 Apr 2002-018A (27413) STS 110 Landed back 19 Apr 1999-065H (25987) R/B Pegasus 19 Apr 1996-061A (24645) HETE/SAC-B/PEGASUS (unseparated) 07 Apr 1993-054B (22780) R/B (1) Delta 2 05 Apr 2002-014A (27397) SHENZHOU 3 01 Apr
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl. Users must register for access. Conditions apply
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 690.1,
NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A., for specific information
(nssdc-request@listserv.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:
http://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://cohoweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/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/nmc/
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