All information in this publication was received between 1 December 2003 and 31 December 2003.
USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM SPACECRAFT LAUNCH
INT.ID CAT. # NAME DATE (UT)
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2003-061A (28140) Double Star 1 29 December 2003
2003-060A (28134) Express AM-22 28 December 2003
2003-059A (28132) AMOS 2 27 December 2003
2003-058A (28129) Navstar 53 (USA 175) 21 December 2003
2003-057A (28117) UFO 11 (USA 174) 18 December 2003
2003-056C (28114) Cosmos 2404 10 December 2003
2003-056B (28113) Cosmos 2403 10 December 2003
2003-056A (28112) Cosmos 2402 10 December 2003
2003-055A (28098) Gruzomaket 05 December 2003
2003-054A (28095) USA 173 02 December 2003
2003-053F (28094) Yamal 201 24 November 2003
2003-053A (28089) Yamal 202 24 November 2003
2003-022C (None ) Beagle 2 02 June 2003
| 2003-061A | Double Star 1
(also known as Tan Ce 1, and TC 1) is a Sino-European
(CNSA-ESA) satellite that was launched by a Long March 2C/SM rocket
from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the Sichuan province of
China (PRC) at 19:06 UT on 29 December 2003. The 330 kg, 260 W
satellite is cylindrical, with a diameter of 2.1 m, a height of
1.4 m, and spins at a rate of 15 rpm. It carries eight instruments
to probe Earth's magnetosphere, five from ESA and three from CNSA.
(The ESA instruments are legacies from ESA's Cluster mission.) The
data from all instruments will be stored on-board and dumped
over three ground stations: Shanghai and Beijing in China, and
Villafranca in Spain. The Program Manager is Bodo Gramkow (ESA) and
the Project Scientist is Philippe Escoubet (ESA). There will be
coordination between the Cluster and Double Star missions. For
more information, see
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSC/120381_index_0_m.html.
Initial orbital parameters were period 1,644 min,
apogee 78,970 km, perigee 562 km, and inclination 28.23°.
ASPOC (Active Space Potential Control) is to maintain the potential of the spacecraft at a low voltage. The tendency to attain high positive voltage due mainly to photoelectric emission is sought to be neutralized by shooting out positive indium ions. The spacecraft potential is continuously monitored by the PEACE instrument. The Principal Investigator is K. Torkar, IWF, Graz, Austria. PEACE (Plasma Electron And Current Experiment) infers the positive potential of the spacecraft by counting the number and speed of the thermal electrons that impinge on it. This measurement is an input to the operation of ASPOC. The Principal Investigator is A. Fazakerley, MSSL, Dorking, UK. FGM (Flux Gate Magnetometer) is located on a 3.5 meter long boom and measures the magnetic field along the orbit at a rate up to 67 samples per second. The Principal Investigator is Chris Carr, IC, UK. HIA (Hot Ion Analyzer) measures the distribution function of ions in the magnetosphere and the solar wind, during each spin period of four seconds. The Principal Investigator is Henri Reme, CESR, Toulouse, France. STAFF-DWP (Spatio-Temporal Analyzer of Field Fluctuations and Digital Wave Processor) The data from the magnetometer consists of two components. The low frequency components are transmitted to the ground for analysis. The higher frequency components are best analyzed on-board by a DWP and STAFF and the result telemetered to the ground stations. The Principal Investigators are N. Cornilleau-Wehrlin of CETP, Velizy, France; and H. Alleyne, Sheffield University, UK. HEED (High Energy Electron Detector) measures the flux of energetic electrons in the magnetosphere. The Principal Investigators are W. Zhang and J. B. Cao of CSSAR, China. (CSSAR stands for Center for Space Science and Applied Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) HEPD (High Energy Proton Detector) detects energetic protons in the magnetosphere and solar wind. The Principal Investigators are J. Liang and J. B. Cao, CSSAR, China. HID (Heavy Ion Detector) detects heavy ions of AMU>4. The Principal Investigators are Y. Zhai and J. B. Cao, CSSAR, China. |
|---|---|
| 2003-060A | Express AM-22 is a Russian geostationary communications satellite that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 23:00 UT on 28 December 2003. The 2.6 tonne, 6 kW satellite will provide television, internet and data transmissions to Russia and bordering countries through its 24 Ku-band transponders, after parking over 53°E longitude. |
| 2003-059A | AMOS 2 is an Israeli geostationary communications satellite that was launched by a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Baikonur at 21:30 UT on 27 December 2003. The 1.4 tonne satellite carries 11 Ku-band transponders to provide direct-to-home television, internet and data transmissions to the West Asia, Europe and eastern United States after parking over 4.0°W longitude. |
| 2003-058A | Navstar 53, also known as USA 175, as GPS 2R-10, and as SVN-47, is an American navigational satellite in the GPS fleet. It was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS at 07:50 UT on 21 December 2003. It will replace the aging but still operational GPS 2A-10 craft in Plane-E and Slot-2. (The GPS constellation consists of 24 satellites split into six orbital planes with four in each plane, all in circular orbits of altitude 20,200 km, and inclination of 55°. There are also four additional satellites orbiting as reserves. The full list is available at http://leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Programs/gps.html.) Initial orbital parameters of Navstar 53 were period 716.5 min, apogee 20,327 km, perigee 19,966 km, and inclination 55.1°. |
| 2003-057A | UFO 11, also known as USA 174, is an American geostationary military communications satellite that was launched by an Atlas 3 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 02:30 UT on 18 December 2003. ("UFO" has been identified as the acronym for Uhf Follow-On.) The 1.4 tonne satellite is the eleventh and final of the UFO constellation which provide secure communications in UHF band of frequencies among ships, aircraft, mobile ground terminals even during severe weather conditions. It wll be parked at 172°E longitude. |
| 2003-056A, 2003-056B, 2003-056C |
Cosmos 2402, Cosmos 2403, and Cosmos 2404 are the latest additions to the Russian fleet of Glonass navigational satellites. One of the good websites for the Glonass fleet is http://gge.unb.ca/Resources/GLONASSConstellationStatus.txt. The initial orbital parameters of all these three were, approximately, period 672 min, apogee 19,105 km, perigee 18,965 km, and inclination 65.1°. |
| 2003-055A | Gruzomaket is a Russian satellite that was launched by a Strela rocket (a modified SS-19 ICBM) from Baikonur. No further information could be ascertained except that the Russian Interfax news agency calls the payload as a mockup (and the name can be so translated also). Initial orbital parameters were period 93.7 min, apogee 462 km, perigee 453 km, and inclination 67.1°. |
| 2003-054A | USA 173 is an American military satellite (operated by the National Reconnaissance Office) that was launched by an Atlas 2AS rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 10:04 UT on 2 December 2003. It is reported to be part of the NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System) fleet. |
| 2003-053A, 2003-053F | Yamal 202 and Yamal 201 are a pair of Russian geostationary communications satellite that were launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 06:22 UT on 24 November 2003. They are identical satellites, with a mass of 1.3 kg, and power 3.6 kW. Yamal 201 carries nine C-band and six Ku-band transponders, while Yamal 202 carries 18 C-band transponders. They will provide voice and video communications throughout the Eurasian continent, after parking: Yamal 201 at 90°E and Yamal 202 at 49°E. |
| 2003-022C | Beagle 2 is an ESA Mars Lander that was released from the orbiting Mars Express (2003-022A, launched on 2 June 2003) on 19 December 2003. It was to soft-land on Mars 25 December 2003. Effort is still ongoing to receive signals from Beagle 2. The instruments on board Beagle 2 are described under Mars Express in SPX.596. |
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.
The latest addition to the fleet is Navstar 53, 2003-058A.
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.
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register. Conditions apply.
Designations Common Name Decay Date (2003) 2003-060C (28136) R/B Proton-K 31 December 2003-001B (27641) R/B Titan 2 19 December 1998-012A (25233) SNOE 13 December 1993-011B (22522) R/B M-3S2 11 December 2003-035A (27856) COSMOS 2399 09 December 1965-082DM(01822) R/B Titan 3C, Transtage 02 December
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl. Users must register for access. Conditions apply
Efforts to repair the ailing Japanese Nozomi (1998-041A), which was on its way to orbit around Mars, were abandoned on 9 December 2003. Efforts may be resumed on a later day to repair and make the instruments functional for, probably, heliospheric monitoring.
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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