SPACEWARN Activities

2005-026A

STS 114 is an American shuttle craft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 15:39 UT on 26 July 2005. It was launched after 29 months of post-mortem analysis of the flaws that led to the explosive end of the previous mission. STS 114 carried several cameras to look out for damage on its own surface and on the foam covering the external fuel tank. Many more ground-based cameras and radars monitored the initial trajectory after the launch. The shuttle also carried repair kits to fix tile-related problems and a 15 meter robotic arm to spot and examine tile degradations. So far, a few (probably) minor damages to the tiles have been identified.

The shuttle docked with the International Space Station on 28 July and delivered 12 tonnes of goods and equipment to the ISS. Two of the crew of seven astronauts participated in practicing with the caulking guns and putty-knives in the open cargo bay for seven hours (on 30 July), in preparation for the space walks that were entailed to repair actual faults. The crew also replaced a defective gyroscope on the ISS. It is expected to complete the mission and return to Earth on 08 August 2005. It has been reported that all planned near-future shuttle launches are cancelled pending yet another reappraisal of the safety issues. Meanwhile three Russian Soyuz-TMA craft are on standby to rescue the crew should the shuttle be deemed unfit for the return journey. The on-going progress of the mission may be accessed via http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/. The initial orbital parameters of STS 114 were period 90.12 min, apogee 287 km, perigee 273 km, and inclination 51.65°.

2005-025A

Suzaku, with a pre-launch name Astro E2, is a Japanese (JAXA/ISAS) astronomy satellite that was launched by an M-5 rocket from Uchinoura Space Center at 03:30 UT on 10 July 2005. It will monitor the universe in the 0.3-700 keV X-ray band, in conjunction with the currently orbiting Chandra (NASA) and XMM-Newton (ESA) satellites. The 1,600 kg, 500 W, octagonal (2 m x 5 m), triaxially-stabilized spacecraft carries six instruments, covering the sky between 60°-120° away from the Sun. The mission has significant participation from NASA and MIT. The data collected during a span of three orbits will be stored in a RAM, and downloaded during a 10-minute pass over a ground station.

The Project scientist is Hideo Kunieda (ISAS/JAXA) and one of the Principal Investigators is Richard Kelley (GSFC/NASA).

XIS (X-ray Imaging Spectrometer) consists of four separate telescopes and detector assemblies. The telescopes are made of tubular reflecting foils of 40 cm diameter and a focal length of 4.5 m, each backed by an array of 1024 x 1024 CCDs sensitive to 0.4-10 keV X-rays.

XRS (X-Ray Spectrometer) is a single telescope made of reflecting tubular (40 cm diameter) foils and with a focal length of 4.5 m capable of detecting 0.5-12 keV X-rays. Its detector assembly consists of an array of 32 micro-calorimeters held at a cryogenic 0.06 K (i.e., about -460°F or -273°C).

HXD (Hard X-ray Detector covers the X-rays in the 10-700 keV range by 16 identical phoswich counters with embedded silicon. The collecting area is 350 cm².

More details of the mission are available at http://www.nasa.gov/astro-e2. The initial orbital parameters were period 96 min, apogee 573 km, perigee 565 km, and inclination 31.4°.

2005-024A

Shijian 7 is a Chinese (PRC) satellite that was launched by a Long March 2D rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 22:40 UT (at 06:40 a.m.) on 05 July 2005. "It will monitor the space environment and conduct other special scientific and technological experiments during a three year time-span.", according to Xinhua News agency. The initial orbital parameters were period 95.9 min, apogee 569 km, perigee 550 km, and inclination 97.6°.

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)

2005-018B (28655)   R/B Delta 2                      05 July

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.

The American (NASA) mission Deep Impact successfully fired a projectile at Comet Tempel 1 at 06:07 UT on 04 July 2005, while the camera and spectrometer on Deep Impact monitored the debris and gas cloud.

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/