SPACEWARN Activities

2005-010A

Express AM-2 is a Russian geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 22:31 UT on 29 March 2004. The 2.6 tonne satellite carries 16 C-band, 12 Ku-band and one L-band transponders to provide digital broadcasting, telephony and video-conferencing and broadband internet access to all countries either side of the Himalayan range, after parking over 80°-E longitude.

2005-007C

TNS-0, also named TEX 42 is a Russian nanosputnik that was released from Progress M-52 that was docked with the International Space Station (ISS). (Its ID, 2005-007C derives from the Progress M-52 ID, 2005-007A, which was launched on 28 February 2005). The 5 kg nanosatellite will help validate design of control and orientation systems on small satellites. Initial orbital parameters were period 91.6 min, apogee 359 km, perigee 350 km, and inclination 51.6°.

2005-009A

Inmarsat 4-F1 is a geostationary communications satellite of the international Inmarsat consortium, that was launched by an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 21:42 UT on 11 March 2005. The 5.95 tonne satellite will provide direct-to-home, high-speed digital communications to much of Europe, Asia and Africa via 200 spot beams in C- and L-bands after parking over 64°-E longitude.

2005-008A

XM 3 is an American geostationary radio communications satellite that was launched by a Zenit-3SL rocket from the floating Odyssey platform on the equatorial Pacific Ocean (at 154°-W longitude) at 03:51 UT on 1 March 2005. The 4.7 tonne satellite will provide music, sports, and news radio through 130 channels to the numerous subscribers with specially equipped receivers in their automobiles, after parking over 85°-W longitude.

Spacecraft with essentially continuous radio beacons on frequencies less than 150 MHz, or higher frequencies if especially suited for ionospheric or geodetic studies.

NNSS denotes U.S. Navy Navigational Satellite System. Updates or corrections to the list are possible only with information from the user community.

Note: The full list appeared in SPX 545. The list will not be repeated in future issues until significantly revised again.

Global Positioning System satellites useful for navigational purposes and geodetic studies.

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 54, 2004-009A.

Russian Global Navigational (Positioning) Spacecraft, GLONASS constellation.

SPACEWARN requests updates/additions from readers to this list.

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.

Visually bright objects.

See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register. Conditions apply.

Actual decays/landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B) only. No further information is available.

Designations         Common Name                  Decay Date (2005)

1995-019B (23554)   R/B Atlas 2A/Centaur             30 March
2002-019B (27415)   R/B Ariane 44L                   30 March
1991-053D (21633)   R/B Molniya                      16 March
2004-051A (28503)   PROGRESS M51                     09 March
2005-007B (28625)   R/B Soyuz-U                      03 March

60-day Decay Predictions.

See http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl. Users must register for access. Conditions apply

Miscellaneous Items.

This section contains information or data that are entered on occasion and may not be repeated in each issue of the SPACEWARN Bulletin.

Related NSSDC resources.

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/