All information in this publication was received between 1 August 2002 and 31 August 2002.
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (UT)
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2002-040B (27509) MSG 1 28 August 2002
2002-040A (27508) Atlantic Bird 28 August 2002
2002-039A (27501) Echostar 8 22 August 2002
2002-038A (27499) Hot Bird 6 21 August 2002
| 2002-040B | MSG 1
(Meteosat Second Generation 1) is a European (Eumetsat
consortium) geostationary weather satellite that was launched by
an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:45 UT on 28 August 2002.
The cylindrical, 2-tonne satellite will enable quicker and more
accurate weather forecasts in Europe than in the past, after first
parking over 10° E longitude for six months and later moving
to zero degree longitude. It carries two major instruments.
SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager) is a 12-channel imager that will provide a set of surface and cloud-cover images every 15 minutes at a spatial resolution of 1 km. Four of the channels are in cloud- and soil-reflected visible wavelengths, four infrared channels will measure temperature of clouds and sea-surface, and the remaining four infrared channels will provide water vapor, ozone and carbon dioxide contents. GERB (Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget) measures the radiation coming from the Sun and the reflected/emitted radiation from the Earth to obtain the radiation balance. Raw data from both instruments will be directly downlinked to Darmstadt, Germany. The processed data will be uplinked to the same satellite to be rebroadcast to Europe and other regions. Besides those two instruments, it carries receivers for weather-data from remote/mobile sites, and a 406 MHz transponder for search-and-rescue SOS operations conducted by the global COSPAS-Surat organization. More details of the payload are available through http://esa.int/export/esaMI/MSG/. |
|---|---|
| 2002-040A | Atlantic Bird is a European (Eutelsat) geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 22:45 UT on 28 August 2002. The 2.7 tonne (dry mass), 5 kW satellite will provide voice, video, and Internet services to Europe and the eastern part of America through its 24 transponders after parking over 12.5° W |
| 2002-039A | Echostar 8 is an American geostationary communication spacecraft that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 05:15 UT on 22 August 2002. The 4.7 tonne satellite will provide digital TV broadcast to North America through its 16 "spot beams" and 41 transponders in the Ku-band after parking over 110° W longitude. |
| 2002-038A | Hot Bird 6 is a European (Eutelsat) geostationary communications spacecraft that was launched by an Atlas 5/Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral at 22:05 UT on 21 August 2002. It was a maiden flight for the Atlas 5 which has two stages (one a liquid oxygen and kerosene, the other a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen burner) and uses Russian motors. The 4.9 tonne Hot Bird 6 will provide digital radio and television coverage to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East through its 28 Ku-band and four Ka-band transponders after parking over 13° E longitude. |
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 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.
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.
The latest addition to the GLONASS fleet are Cosmos 2380, Cosmos 2381, and Cosmos 2382.
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register. Conditions apply.
Designations Common Name Decay Date (2002) 2002-025B (27435) R/B Shavit 31 August 1969-084A (04119) METEOR 1-2 20 August 1991-010E (21122) R/B (Aux.Mot.) Cosmos 18 August 2001-042B (26928) R/B Ariane 44P 11 August 1962-002D (00229) R/B Delta 1 10 August 1985-103A (16220) MOLNIYA 1-66 02 August
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl. Users must register for access. Conditions apply
CONTOUR spacecraft (2002-034A) is reported to have lost contact with the ground control. A thruster was ignited on 15 August 2002 to boost it into a heliocentric orbit so as to obtain images of two comets over the next few years. But soon after the ignition there was no contact. Ground based telescopes seem to have photographed the spacecraft as two separate pieces. NASA has appointed a panel to investigate the cause.
The CRL, Kokubunji, Japan has notified us that NASDA expects to launch a geostationary DRTS (Data Relay Test Satellite) on 10 September 2002 by a H-IIA rocket.
It appears that there is no national or international organization that defines the various alphabetically designated Communication and Broadcasting frequency bands. One of the extant lists has the following coverages. The Spacewarn Bulletin would appreciate input from the reader community to update the coverage status. (wwas@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov)
L-Band 1.35-1.70 GHz
S-Band 1.70-2.30 GHz; 2.30-2.70 GHz
C-Band 3.40-4.20 GHz; 4.40-5.00 GHz; 5.725-8.40 GHz
Ku-Band 10.00-13.25 GHz; 14.00-15.40 GHz
K-Bnad 17.30-24.05 GHz
Ka-Band 25.25-31.80 GHz
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/
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