All information in this publication was received between 1 October 2002 and 31 October 2002.
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (UT)
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2002-050A (27552) Soyuz TMA-1 30 October 2002
2002-049A (27550) JB-3 2 27 October 2002
2002-048A (27540) INTEGRAL 17 October 2002
2002-047A (27537) STS 112 07 October 2002
| 2002-050A | Soyuz TMA-1 is a Russian automatic passenger craft that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 03:11 UT on 30 October 2002. It carried a crew of three astronauts (two Russian and one Belgian) to automatically dock with the International Space Station (ISS). This new Soyuz TMA-1 is a larger craft that has more comfortable space and ergonomic furniture than the previous TM models. It will remain parked at the ISS as the escape craft, relieving the Soyuz TM-34. The crew will do several microgravity experiments on the ISS during their 10-day stay there. The initial orbital parameters of Soyuz TMA-1 were period 90.2 min, apogee 295 km, perigee 278 km, and inclination 51.62°. |
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| 2002-049A | JB-3 2 is a Chinese (PRC) remote sensing satellite that was launched by a Long March 4B rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) at 03:17 UT on 27 October 2002. JB-3 2 is the name adopted by the USSPACECOM. Most news reports from China and elsewhere use different names: ZY-2B (acronym for ZiYuan-2B, translated as Resource-2B), and Zhong Guo Zi Yuan Er Hao, translated as China Resource 2. There has been a Zhangguo Ziyuan 2 (2000-050A) obviously omitting the "A" after "2", condensed by the USSPACECOM as ZY 2. No information is available on the instruments onboard the JB-3 2, but it is intended "for territorial survey, environment monitoring and protection, urban planning, crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring and space scientific experiment". The initial orbital parameters of this Sun-synchronous satellite were period 94.1 min, apogee 483 km, perigee 470 km, and inclination 97.4°. |
| 2002-048A | INTEGRAL
(INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) is a
European (ESA) astrophysics satellite that was launched from
Baikonur by a Proton-K rocket at 04:41 UT on 17 October 2002.
The four tonne (with fuel) cylindrical (5 m height and 3.7 m
diameter) satellite is equipped with two tonnes of instruments to
monitor gamma rays, x-rays, and visible light, the gamma ray
emitters being of primary interest.
SPI (SPectrometer on Integral) is a gamma ray spectrometer with a "coded mask" front-plate consisting of 64 transparent and 63 opaque small hexagons arranged in a complex pattern. The shadow provided by the plate is unique to each direction of arrival. Behind this plate at 1.7 m is an array of 19 cryogenic (85° K) germanium detectors of total area 500 cm2, to provide the energy of the incoming photons in the range 20 keV-8 MeV at an accuracy of 0.2% of their energies. A source can be located at an accuracy of 2° within the field of view of 16°. It is a massive, 1.3 tonne instrument with most of the mass intended to shield away entries of stray radiation. J.-P. Roques of CSER, Toulouse, France and V. Schoenfelder of MPE, Garching, Germany are the Principal Investigators. IBIS is a gamma ray imaging telescope to provide images in the composite energy range of 15 keV-10 MeV. It consists of a coded mask front-plate backed up by two layers of pixels. The first layer has 16,384 Cd-Te pixels; immediately behind this is a thicker layer of 4,096 Cs-I pixels to monitor the more energetic photons. It rejects stray contaminations by heavy shielding on the sides and bottom. The image resolution at 30 arc-seconds. (PIs: P. Ubertini, IAS, Rome, Italy; F. Lebrun, CE-Saclay, France; and G. DiCocco, ITESRE, Bologna, Italy.) JEM-X (Joint European Monitor, X-rays) provides images in the 3-35 keV energy range, at a resolution of three arc-min. This too has a coded mask front-plate backed up at 3.2 m by a detection plane. The detector is a pair of xenon-methane gas chambers, backed up by a 1,000 cm2 grid of position sensing wires which collect the accelerated and cascading photoelectrons. (PI: Niels Lund, DSRI, Copenhagen, Denmark.) OMC (Optical Monitoring Camera) is intended to image the gamma ray sources in visible light from sources with a magnitude as weak as 19.7. It is a refractor telescope with a 5-cm lens, imaging on to an array of CCDs kept at -80° C. The field of view is 5° x 5° and the resolution is 18 arc-seconds. (PI: M. Mas-Hesse, LAEFF-INTA, Madrid, Spain) More details of the mission and the instruments are available in http://sci.esa.int/integral/. The data from all the four instruments are archived in FITS format, and are available at http://isdc.unige.ch/. The orbit of INTEGRAL has a very high apogee to escape magnetospheric radiation. The initial orbital parameters are period 66 hr, apogee 153,000 km, perigee 639 km, and inclination 51.7°. |
| 2002-047A | STS 112 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 19:46 UT on 7 October 2002. It carried a crew of five American and one Russian astronauts, and material to the International Space Station (ISS) to augment that facility. During the 11-day mission, the crew extended the truss system of the exterior rail line by a 14 m, 13 tonne girder. The crew also tested a manual cart on the rails. The cart, named CETA (Crew and Equipment Transportation Aid), will enable mobility of crew and equipment during the installation phases. It landed back in Cape Canaveral at 15:43 UT on 18 October 2002 carrying back the same crew of six. Initial orbital parameters of STS 112 were period 91.3 min, apogee 405 km, perigee 273 km and inclination 51.6°. |
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) 1990-006C (20446) R/B(2) that launched Molniya 3-37 23 October 2002-047A (27537) STS 112 Landed back on 18 October 1971-003B (048500 R/B that launched METEOR 7 18 October 2002-033A (27454) PROGRESS M-46 14 October
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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