SPACEWARN Activities

2007-032A

DirecTV 10 is an American geostationary communications satellite that was launched by a Proton-M rocket from Baikonur at 01:16 UT on 07 July 2007. The 5.9 tonne (including 2.2 tonnes of fuel) craft carries 32 broad beam Ka-band transponders, and 55 spot-beam Ka-band transponders to provide direct-to-home high-definition video (HDTV) and internet services throughout the USA after parking over 102.8° W longitude.

2007-031A

ChinaSat 6B is a Chinese (PRC) geostationary communications satellite that was launched by a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang launch center at 12:08 UT on 06 July 2007. The 4.6 tonne, 8.7 kW craft carries 38 C-band transponders to provide voice and video services to Asia-Pacific and Oceania after parking over 115.5° E longitude.

2007-030A

SAR Lupe 2 is a German military reconnaissance craft that was launched by a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome at 19:39 UT on 02 July 2007. The 770 kg craft carries a large Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to provide 1-m resolution images. It is the second of five such craft that will eventually comprise the SAR Lupe fleet. The initial orbital parameters were period 94.3 min, apogee 500 km, perigee 471 km and inclination 98.2°.

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 59, 2006-052A.

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.

According to CSIC the latest additions to the fleet are 2006-062A, 2006-062B, and 2006-062C.

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 (2007)

2007-004F (30585)    R/B(1) Delta 2                   16 July
2000-063H (26574)    R/B(Aux.Mot) Proton-K            12 July
1990-099D (20944)    R/B(2) Soyuz                     08 July
1990-071A (20742)    MOLNIYA 1-78                     06 July
1992-011A (21897)    MOLNIYA 1-83                     01 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.

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/