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Questions/comments about the content of these pages should be directed to: The World Warning Agency for Satellites, wwas@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov National Space Science Data Center, Mail Code 633 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| 01 January 2001 |
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COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (2000)
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2000-082A (26643) Beidou 1B 20 Dec
2000-081C (26640) LDREX 20 Dec
2000-081B (26639) GE 8 20 Dec
2000-081A (26638) Astra 2D 20 Dec
2000-080A (26635) USA 155 06 Dec
2000-079A (26631) EROS A1 05 Dec
2000-078A (26630) STS 97 01 Dec
| 2000-082A | Beidou 1B is a Chinese (PRC) navigational spacecraft that was launched by a Long March 3A rocket from Xichang launch center at 16:20 UT. The launch of this second Beidou completes the two-satellite navigational system which will provide positional information for highway, railway and marine transportation. Initial orbital parameters were period 752.6 min, apogee 41,871 km, perigee 190 km, and inclination 25 deg. |
|---|---|
| 2000-081C | LDREX (Large-scale Deployable Reflector EXperiment) is a Japanese experimental antenna dish that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 00:26 UT. The reflector was to stay expanded to a diameter of 6 meters for about 20 min, after sliding out of a tubular container on the rocket. An on-board camera was to image and downlink the deployment process. Orbital parameters are not available. |
| 2000-081B | GE 8 is an American geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 00:26 UT. The 2.2 tonne (with fuel) spacecraft carries 24 C-band transponders to provide voice, video, and broadband data communications to the contiguous USA, Alaska, and the Caribbean after parking over 139 deg-W longitude. |
| 2000-081A | Astra 2D is a European (Luxembourg-registered) geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 00:26 UT. The 825 kg (dry mass) satellite carries 16 Ku-band transponders to provide direct-to-home voice, video, and data transmissions to Britain and neighboring countries after parking over 28.2 deg-E longitude. |
| 2000-080A | USA 155 is an American military (NRO) spacecraft that was launched by an Atlas 2AS rocket from Cape Canaveral at 02:47 UT. A report has it that it may be a satellite just to collect and relay data from NRO's many photo-reconnaissance satellites. |
| 2000-079A | EROS A1 (Earth Resources Observation Satellite) is an Israeli photo-reconnaissance satellite that was launched by a START 1 rocket from the new launch site at Svobodni in Siberia at 12:30 UT. (It is the third launch from that site. The START 1 rocket is a modified RS-12M Topol ICBM, also known in NATO as SS-25.) The 250 kg (dry mass) triaxially stabilized spacecraft carries a black and white high resolution (1.8 m) CCD camera, to obtain images (with terrain width of 12.6 km) of locations chosen by Israeli military or world-wide commercial clients, and downlink them at one of the 14 ground stations. The initial parameters of the Sun-synchronous orbit were period 94.6 min, apogee 505 km, perigee 490 km, and inclination 97.3 deg. |
| 2000-078A | STS 97 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 03:06 UT. The main mission was to install a 72 m x 11.4 m, 65 kW double-wing solar panel on the Unity module of the International Space Station (ISS). Including the support beams, radiators and batteries, the power generator has a mass of 15.75 tonne. The previously docked Progress-M1 4 cargo spacecraft had to be temporarily evicted from the ISS before the installation. It required several spacewalks by the crew to extend the panel taut enough. The shuttle landed back in Cape Canaveral at 23:03 UT on 11 December. The initial orbital parameters of STS 97 were period 91.7 min, apogee 365 km, perigee 352 km, and inclination 51.6 deg. |
Note: The full list appeared in SPX 545. The list will not be repeated in future issues until significantly revised again.
High precision (<20 cm) GPS constellation tracking data obtained from the network of about 80 dedicated global stations that are of interest to geodetic study may be obtained through the following services provided by the International Association of Geodesy (IGS)
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 SPX-518. It will not be repeated since an excellent source of trajectory- and science-related GPS information is at http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html#DODSystem It provides many links to GPS related databases.
All GLONASS spacecraft are in the general COSMOS series. The COSMOS numbers (nnnn) 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 appeared in SPX-545. It will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source at: http://www.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/english.html maintained by the Coordinational Scientific Information Center (CSIC),Russian Space Forces.
A comprehensive list of visually bright objects with their two-line orbital elements is available from USSPACECOM, via a NASA URL, http://oig1.gsfc.nasa.gov/files/visible.tle. The list, however, does not include visual magnitudes, but are expected to be brighter than magnitude 5.
Designations Common Name Decay Date (2000) 1998-066C (25529) IRIDIUM 85 30 Dec 1970-034B (04392) R/B 29 Dec 1987-109E (18719) R/B (Aux. Mot) that launched EKRON 17 20 Dec 1992-047H (22067) R/B (Aux. Mot) Proton 19 Dec 1997-085B (25124) R/B START 1 12 Dec 1997-009B (24743) R/B Ariane 44LP 12 Dec 2000-078A (26630) STS 97 Landed on 11 Dec 2000-077B (26627) R/B Proton-K 01 Dec 1998-051D (25470) IRIDIUM 79 29 Nov
The USSPACECOM has rematched the names with the IDs for the following two spacecraft, after input from the launching agencies; the names are just reversed.
2000-057A (26545) Saudisat 1A
2000-057D (26548) Tiungsat 1
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 633, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A., for specific information (request@nssdca.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 accessed via anonymous FTP from NSSDC. (See About the SPACEWARN Bulletin for access method; a file in the active directory named AAREADME.TXT, outlines the contents.)
Other files interest for Earth-centered spacecraft can be generated through the URL,
http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Programs related to the heliospheric spacecraft trajectories can be executed
through the URL,
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/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/sc-query.html
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Questions/comments about the content of these pages should be directed to: The World Warning Agency for Satellites, wwas@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov National Space Science Data Center, Mail Code 633 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 |