SPACEWARN Activities

2011-017A

Progress-M 10M, a Russian satellite, was launched from Baikonur on 27 April 2011 at 13:05 UT by a Soyuz rocket. The spacecraft docked to the International Space Station's (ISS) Pirs module on 29 April 2011 at 14:29 UT. The unmanned resupply craft carried 1350 kg of dry cargo consisting of food, spare parts, life support gear, and experiment hardware. The craft also carried 880 kg of propellant, 420 kg of water and 50 kg of oxygen. Progress-M 10M is expected to remain docked to the ISS for approximately six months and will depart the ISS, carrying trash, for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.

2011-016B

Yahsat 1A, a telecommunications satellite, was launched from Kourou on 22 April 2011 at 21:37 UT. The satellite was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket and weighed approximately 6000 kg. Yahsat 1A carries Ku-, Ka-, and C-band transponders and antennas. It will provide direct-to-home television programming, and secure Ka-band communications capacity for government and military applications in the United Arab Emirates and other nations. Located in geosynchronous orbit at 52.5° E longitude it will provide coverage over the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Southwest Asia. Yahsat 1A is the first of two identical satellites. It is designed to operate for more than 15 years.

2011-016A

Intelsat New Dawn, an African communications satellite, was launched from Kourou on 22 April 2011 at 21:37 UT. The satellite was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket and weighed approximately 3000 kg. Marketed and operated as part of the Intelsat satellite fleet, it is the first African private sector communications satellite with the mission of supplying critical communications infrastructure for African customers. It carries C-band and Ku-band transponders and will provide wireless broadband, television, and other media applications, covering Africa, Western Europe, the Middle East and Pakistan. Intelsat New Dawn will be parked at 32.8° E longitude. It is designed to operate for more than 15 years.

2011-015C

X-SAT was launched from Sriharikota on 20 April 2011 at 04:42 UT. The microsatellite was launched by a PSLV-C16 rocket and weighed approximately 91 kg. X-SAT is Singapore's first national satellite. It has a multi-spectral camera and will demonstrate space-based remote sensing and image processing technologies.

2011-015B

YouthSat was launched from Sriharikota on 20 April 2011 at 04:42 UT. The microsatellite was launched by a PSLV-C16 rocket and weighed approximately 91 kg. YouthSat is a joint mission between Indian and Russian students and carries three science instruments to study the upper atmosphere and measure solar cosmic rays.

2011-015A

Resourcesat 2, an Indian satellite, was launched from Sriharikota on 20 April 2011 at 04:42 UT. The satellite weighed 1.206 tonnes and was launched by a PSLV-C16 rocket. The spacecraft carries three visible and infrared cameras with a peak resolution of 5.8 m. The imagers are upgraded versions of the cameras flying on Resourcesat 1, an aging predecessor satellite that has already outlived its lifetime projection. Resourcesat 2 also features advanced and miniaturized electronics and carries an experimental ship-tracking Automatic Identification System instrument to collect position, speed and other information from seagoing vessels. It will also help officials respond to natural disasters, monitor agriculture, and manage urban and rural roads and infrastructure. Resourcesat 2 has a design life of at least five years.

2011-014A

USA 229 was launched from Vandenberg AFB on 15 April 2011 at 04:24 UT by an Atlas 5 rocket. USA 229 is a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) classified satellite.

2011-013A

Beidou IGSO 3, a Chinese navigation satellite, was launched from Xichang on 09 April 2011 at 20:47 UT by a Long March 3A rocket. Beidou IGSO 3 is part of China's Compass Navigation Satellite System (CNSS) which will eventually consist of 35 vehicles providing global navigation and positioning coverage by 2020. The Beidou satellite fleet will provide precise navigation data to China's military and civil government officials. Positioning information with an accuracy of 10 m will be released to the public worldwide.

2011-012A

Soyuz-TMA 21, a Russian manned satellite, was launched from Baikonur on 04 April 2011 at 22:18 UT by a Soyuz rocket. The Soyuz-TMA 21 spacecraft carried a crew of three and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Poisk module on 06 April at 23:09 UT. The crew consisted of two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut. They have an expansive research program encompassing more than 40 experiments, and will also make a spacewalk to service the Russian segment of the ISS. In the course of that walk, a Radioskaf 2 Kedr space probe designed by Russian students will be launched. The Russian space agency, Roskosmos, officially dedicated the Soyuz-TMA 21 launch to the pioneering mission of Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961.

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 2F-1 (2010-022A).

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 IAC the latest addition to the fleet is Cosmos 2471 (2011-009A.)

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 (2011)

2011-017B(37397)     SL-4 R/B                         29 April
1980-093A(12071)     COSMOS 1222                      27 April
2011-004A(37359)     PROGRESS M-09M                   26 April 
2007-005C(30588)     H-2A R/B                         18 April
2011-012B(37383)     SL-4 R/B                         07 April
2006-058B(29654)     MINOTAUR R/B                     02 April

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/