All information in this publication was received between 1 April 2004 and 30 April 2004.
USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (UT)
----------------------------------------------------------------
2004-015A (28234) Express AM-11 26 April 2004
2004-014A (28230) Gravity Probe-B 20 April 2004
2004-013A (28228) Soyuz-TMA 4 19 April 2004
2004-012B (28221) Naxing 1 18 April 2004
2004-012A (28220) Tansuo 1 18 April 2004
2004-011A (28218) Superbird 6 16 April 2004
| 2004-015A | Express AM-11 is a Russian geostationary communications satellite that was launched from Baikonur by a Proton-K rocket at 20:37 UT on 26 April 2004. It carries many transponders to provide digital television, telephone and broadband internet links to Russia and its neighbors, Southeast Asia, and Australia, after parking over a suitable longitude. |
|---|---|
| 2004-014A | Gravity Probe-B is an American (NASA) science satellite that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 16:57 UT on 20 April 2004. Its aim is to verify a derivative consequence of the General Relativistic Gravitation (GRG) theory, according to which a spinning body such as the Earth makes the space-time around it to rotate around, though extremely slowly. The satellite carries a telescope, embedded with four 4-cm quartz spheres that spin at a rate of 10,000 rpm as freely suspended gyroscopes. The prediction is that the orientation of the spin axes will move by 42 milliseconds-of-arc during a year of orbiting. The reference point is a bright star named HR 8703, also known as IM Pegasus, in the Pegasus constellation that will remain sighted by the telescope. The instrumentation details and the method of detecting the angular deviation of the gyroscopes are available in http://einstein.stanford.edu/. Francis Everitt of the Stanford University is the Principal Investigator. The initial orbital parameters were period 97.6 min, apogee 645 km, perigee 641 km, and inclination 90.0°. |
| 2004-013A | Soyuz-TMA 4 is a Russian passenger transport satellite that was launched by a Soyuz-FG rocket from Baikonur at 03:19 UT on 19 April 2004. It carried three astronauts (a Russian, an American and a Dutch) to the International Space Station (ISS) and docked with the Zvezda module of the ISS automatically on 21 April at 05:00 UT. Two of its astronauts will remain in the ISS for about six months, while the Dutch astronaut and the two astronauts who had inhabited the ISS for several months left the ISS on 29 April in the TMA-3 that had remained docked with the ISS, soft landing in Kazakhstan at 00:11 on 30 April. The initial orbital parameters were period 91.8 min, apogee 371 km, perigee 356 km, and inclination 51.6°. |
| 2004-012B | Naxing 1 (also reported as Nanosat 1) is a Chinese (PRC) satellite that was launched by a Long March 2-C rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 16:00 UT on 18 April 2004. The 25 kg satellite will perform "some high-tech experiments". The initial orbital parameters were period 96.9 min, apogee 615 km, perigee 600 km, and inclination 97.6°. |
| 2004-012A | Tansuo 1 (also reported as Experimentsat 1) is a Chinese (PRC) satellite that was launched by a Long March 2-C rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 16:00 UT on 18 April 2004. The 204 kg satellite will provide stereographic maps of land resources in China. The initial orbital parameters were period 96.8 min, apogee 615 km, and perigee 600 km, and inclination 97.7°. |
| 2004-011A | Superbird 6 is a Japanese geostationary communications satellite that was launched by an Atlas 2AS rocket from Cape Canaveral at 00:45 UT on 16 April 2004. The 3.2 tonne, 4.4 kW satellite was launched into a highly elliptical transfer orbit, with a period 2,895 min, apogee 120,679 km, perigee 1,138 km, and inclination 25.5°. It is reported that this high apogee, with its very low velocity, is conducive to maneuvering into geostationary status using much less on-board fuel than the usual transfer orbits require. It will become geostationary by 5 May 2004, after six maneuvers. It will provide high data-rate transmissions for television and internet access to the Asia-Pacific region through its 23 Ku-band, and four Ka-band transponders, after parking over 158° E longitude. It will be the fifth operational Superbird, after the current list of Superbird-A, -B2, -C, and -D. |
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.
The latest addition to the fleet is Navstar 53, 2003-058A.
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.
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register. Conditions apply.
Designations Common Name Decay Date (2004) 2004-015C (28236) R/B Proton-K 29 April 2004-013B (28229) R/B Soyuz-FG 22 April 2000-002B (26057) R/B Ariane 42L 16 April 2004-005C (28165) R/B(1) Molniya-M 11 April 1964-049D (00869) COSMOS 41 09 April
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/
| SPACEWARN Bulletin index | About the SPACEWARN Bulletin | About Spacecraft Categories | NSSDC home page |
|---|