SPACEWARN
Bulletin
A monthly publication of the National Space Science Data Center/World Data Center for Satellite Information
No. 584                                                                                                                            01 Jul. 2002

SPACEWARN Activities

A. List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UTC).

USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.
  COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM  SPACECRAFT              LAUNCH
    INT.ID    CAT. #      NAME                   DATE (UT)
  --------------------------------------------------------
   2002-033A    (27454)  Progress-M46        26 June 2002
   2002-032A    (27453)  NOAA 17             24 June 2002
   2002-031B    (27451)  Iridium 98          20 June 2002
   2002-031A    (27450)  Iridium 97          20 June 2002
   2002-030A    (27445)  Galaxy 3C           15 June 2002  
   2002-029A    (27441)  Express 4A          10 June 2002
   2002-028A    (27440)  STS 111             05 June 2002
   2002-027A    (27438)  Intelsat 905        05 June 2002
                         -----------
   2002-024B    (27431)  Fengyun 1D          15  May 2002
   2002-024A    (27430)  Haiyang 1           15  May 2002

B. Text of Launch Announcements.

2002-033A Progress-M46 is a Russian automatic cargo carrier that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 06:36 UT on 26 June 2002. It delivered 2.5 tonnes of fuel, food, oxygen, water and equipment to the International Space Station after docking with the ISS at 07:22 UT on 29 June 2002. The initial orbital parameters were period 88.6 min, apogee 245 km, perigee 193 km, and inclination 51.7 deg.
2002-032A NOAA 17 is an American (NOAA/NASA) weather satellite that was launched by Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 18:23 UT on 24 June 2002. The triaxially-stabilized, 1,500 kg (plus 760 kg fuel) satellite with a length of 4.2 m and a diameter of 1.9 m has a solar array of 16.8 square-meters that generates 830 W power. It carries several Earth weather-related instruments, named AVHRR-3, HIRS-3, AMSU-A, AMSU-B, and SBUV-2; and a space weather package named SEM. The data are stored on-board and transmitted over Fairbanks (Alaska) and Wallops Island (Virginia). The Program Manager (PM) for NOAA 17 is Karen Halterman of the Goddard Space Flight Center. (No one is listed as PS or PI.) More details on NOAA 17 are available in http://poes.gsfc.nasa.gov/campaignm/campaign_home.htm. Initial orbital parameters were period 101.2 min, apogee 823 km, perigee 807 km, and inclination 98.8 deg.

AVHRR-3 (AdVanced High Resolution Radiometer 3) has six wavelength channels (0.58-0.68, 0.625-1.00, 1.58-1.64, 3.55-3.93, 10.3-11.3, and 11.5-12.5 microns), of which the first three monitor the back-scattered solar radiation, and the second three monitor the emissions from land, sea, ice and clouds, all with a spatial resolution of 1.1 km.

HIRS-3 (High-resolution InfraRed Sounder 3) monitors the atmosphere in 20 closely spaced wavelength channels (one in visible, seven in shortwave IR, and 12 in longwave IR channels) to provide the vertical temperature profile out to 40 km, at a spatial resolution of about 20 km.

AMSU A/B (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, A and B) capture the water vapor emissions to obtain tropospheric humidity profile, with help from HIRS-3 data. AMSU-A operates at 15 channels in the range 23.8-89.0 GHz and AMSU-B operates in five channels in the range 89-183 GHz.

SBUV-2 (Solar Back-scatter UV 2) monitors the solar irradiance and the back-scattered radiations in 12 bands covering the wavelength range, 160-400 nm to obtain total ozone and its vertical distribution.

SEM-2 (Space Environment Monitor 2) carries two detectors: TED (Total Energy Detector) captures the particle radiation in several bands covering 0.05-20.0 keV; and MEPED (Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector) covers the 30 keV-6.9 MeV range in several channels.

SAR (Search And Rescue) instruments monitor the international emergency radio bands at 121.5, 243.0, and 406.05 MHz. The SARR instrument captures the calls in all three frequencies, only to transpond instantaneously to a ground station, if any, in sight. The SARP instrument captures a 406.5 MHz call, stores it on-board so as to retransmit over known ground stations. The ground stations Doppler-analyze the signals to locate the position of the distress site with an accuracy of a few kilometers.
2002-031A, 2002-031B Iridium 97 and Iridium 98 are the two American Iridium communications satellites that were launched by a Rockot rocket from Plesetsk at 09:34 UT on 20 May 2002. (Rockot is a modified SS-19 ICBM.) These two 690 kg satellites augment the fleet of in-orbit spares to 14 satellites that are intended as backup to the operational fleet of 66 Iridiums. The fleet provides L-band links between mainly mobile telephones, many of which have been recently DoD/Pentagon-owned. The initial orbital parameters of both were close: period 98.0 min, apogee 670 km, perigee 658 km, and inclination 86.6 deg.
2002-030A Galaxy 3C is an American geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by a Zenit 3SL rocket from the Odyssey Launch Platform on the equatorial (154 deg-W longitude) Pacific Ocean at 22:39 UT on 15 June 2002. The 2.8 tonne satellite will provide direct-to-home broadcast of video and internet services to the subscribers in the USA and Latin America through its 24 C-band (34 W) and 53 Ku-band (120 W) transponders after parking over 95 deg-W longitude
2002-029A Express 4A (also named in the press as Express 41R and Express 41P) is a Russian geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 01:15 UT on 10 June 2002. The 1.6 tonne spacecraft will provide television and radio services in digital format to Russia and neighboring countries.
2002-028A STS 111 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 21:23 UT on 5 June 2002. It carried a crew of seven astronauts (four American, two Russian and a French) and material to the International Space Station (ISS). Three of the astronauts (one American and two Russians) will remain on ISS for four months, relieving its earlier crew of three. The crew repaired a malfunctioning gyroscope and installed debris shields on the Zvesda module. They repaired the wrist joints on the Canadian robotic arm/crane, and also facilitated its (eventual) full mobility across the full length of the ISS. The shuttle returned on 19 June 2002 to Edwards AFB in California with four of its crew, plus the three astronauts who had stayed on the ISS for over six months. The initial orbital parameters of the shuttle were period 91.9 min apogee 387 km, perigee 349 km, and inclination 51.6°.
2002-027A Intelsat 905 is a geostationary communications spacecraft of the international ITSO consortium that was launched by an Ariane 44L rocket from Kourou at 06:44 UT. It will provide voice, video, and internet services to all countries adjoining the Atlantic Ocean through its 72 C-band and 22 Ku-band transponders after parking over 24.5° W longitude.(It replaces the aging Intelsat 603, which had been retrieved from a useless orbit by a space Shuttle crew in 1992 and ejected back to be functional till 2002.)
2002-024A, 2002-024B Haiyang 1 and Fengyun 1D are the official names of the two Chinese spacecraft that had been tentatively named as Payload A and Payload B in SPX 583.

C. Spacecraft Particularly Suited for International Participation

  1. 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.

  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.

  3. 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.

  4. Visually bright objects.

    See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register. Conditions apply.

  5. Actual decays/landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B) only. No further information is available.
    Designations         Common Name                  Decay Date (2002)
    
    2002-033B (27455)  R/B Soyuz-U                            28 June
    2002-008A (27382)  COSMOS 2387                            27 June
    2002-013A (27395)  PROGRESS M1-8                          25 June
    1978-075B (10994)  R/B Titan 34B/Agena D                  25 June
    2002-028A (27440)  STS 111                   Landed back  19 June
    1992-037B (22010)  R/B Atlas 2/Centaur                    17 June
    2002-029B (27442)  R/B Proton-K                           12 June
    2001-037E (26896)  R/B (Aux. Mot.) Proton-K               07 June
    2000-081D (26641)  R/B Ariane 5                           01 June
    1990-039D (20586)  R/B(2) that launched MOLNIYA 1-77      31 May
    2001-045E (26940)  R/B (Aux. Mot.) Proton-K               30 May
    1992-032B (21990)  R/B Atlas 2A/Centaur                   30 May 
    
  6. 60-day Decay Predictions.

    See http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl. Users must register for access. Conditions apply

  7. Miscellaneous Items. (This section contains information/data that are entered on occasion and may not be repeated in each issue of the SPACEWARN Bulletin.)

  8. 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/

SPACEWARN Bulletin index About the SPACEWARN Bulletin About Spacecraft Categories NSSDC home page

Questions/comments about the content of these pages should be directed to:
The World Warning Agency for Satellites, wwas@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov
National Space Science Data Center, Mail Code 633
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Dr. Edwin Bell, II
NASA Official: Dr. David R. Williams
V1.0, 01 July 2002
Last updated: 05 March 2003, EVB II