SPACEWARN Activities

2008-037A

Cosmos 2441 is a Russian military photo-reconnaissance craft that was launched by a Soyuz 2B rocket from Plesetsk at 18:31 UT on 26 July 2008. The initial orbital parameters of the Sun-synchronous satellite were period 94 min, apogee 770 km, perigee 210 km, and inclination 98.3°.

2008-036A

Sar Lupe 5 is a German military, Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite that was launched by a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk at 02:40 UT on 22 July 2008. The radar operates at an X-band frequency to provide images at one-meter resolution. The initial orbital parameters were period 94.3 min, apogee 501 km, perigee 470 km, and inclination 98.2°.

2008-035A

Echostar 11 is an American geostationary communications craft that was launched by a Zenit 3SL rocket from the Odyssey platform floating at longitude 154° W on the Pacific Ocean equator at 05:21 UT on 16 July 2008. The 5.5 tonne (with fuel), 20 kW craft carries several Ku-band transponders to provide direct-to-home television to American homes after parking over 110° W longitude.

2008-034B

Badr 6, also known as Arabsat 4AR, is a geostationary communications craft (owned by the Arabsat consortium) that was launched by an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou at 21:47 UT on 07 July 2008. The 3.4 tonne (with fuel) craft carries 24 C-band, and 20 Ku-band transponders to provide direct-to-home (DTH) voice, video, and internet services to the Middle-East and North African region after parking over 26° E longitude.

2008-034A

Protostar 1 is a geostationary communications craft (of the multi-national Protostar consortium of corporations, and registered in Bermuda) that was launched by an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou at 21:47 UT on 07 July 2008. The 4.1 tonne, 11 kW craft carries 36 C-band and 16 Ku-band transponders to provide direct-to-home (DTH) voice, video, and internet services to China and East-Asia after parking over 98.5° E longitude.

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 GPS 2R-18 (2007-062A).

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 2007-065A, 2007-065B, and 2007-065C.

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 (2008)

2001-053H (26994)    R/B (Aux.) Proton-K              19 July
2005-006B (28623)    R/B H-2                          18 July
2007-025B (31602)    R/B Shavit                       10 July
2004-053H (28515)    R/B (Aux.) Proton-K              08 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/