SPACEWARN Activities

2010-010A

Echostar 14, a commercial communications satellite, was launched on a Proton-M rocket with a Breeze M upper stage from Baikonur on 20 March 2010 at 18:27 UT. This satellite will broadcast direct-to-home programming to customers in the United States. The launch mass of Echostar 14 was 6384 kg. The satellite carries 103 Ku-band transponders has a design lifetime of 15 years and will operate from a geosynchronous orbit at a longitude of 119° W. Echostar 14 will replace Echostar 7 that was launched in February 2002.

2010-009A,
  2010-009B,
  2010-009C

Yaogan 9A, Yaogan 9B, and Yaogan 9C, Chinese observation satellites, were launched on a Long March 4C rocket from Jiuquan on 05 March 2010 at 04:55 UT.

2010-008A

GOES 15, also known as GOES-P, is an American (NOAA) geostationary weather satellite that was launched by a Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral on 04 March 2010 at 23:57 UT. The mass of the satellite at launch was 3175 kg. It is the third in an updated series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites which carry an imager, sounder, the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI), the Space Environment Monitor System (SEM) and a search and rescue transponder which relays distress signals to the ground. The SEM consists of two magnetometers; an Energetic Particle Sensor (EPS) composed of a High-Energy Proton and Alpha Detector (HEPAD), a Magnetosphere Electron Detector (MAGED), an Energetic Proton Electron and Alpha Detector (EPEAD), and a Magnetosphere Proton Detector (MAGPD); Energetic X-Ray Sensor (XRS) and Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) sensors. GOES 15 was placed in orbit originally as a spare and has an expected mission lifetime of 10 years (2 years on-orbit storage and 8 years operational).

2010-007A,
  2010-007B,
  2010-007C

Three Glonass-M spacecraft Cosmos 2459 (Glonass 731), Cosmos 2461 (Glonass 735) and Cosmos 2460 (Glonass 732) were added to the Russian global navigation satellite system. They were launched by a Proton-M rocket with a Block DM upper stage from Baikonur on 01 March 2010 at 21:19 UT. Each spacecraft has a mass of 1360 kg and are designed to last seven years. The GLONASS system requires satellites in three orbital planes and global service requires 24 satellites. As of 01 March 2010 the constellation consisted of 18 operational satellites. These recent additions to the constellation will occupy the third plane, orbital slots 22, 24, and 23, respectively.

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 2R-21(M) (2009-043A).

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 additions to the fleet are 2009-070A, 2009-070B, and 2009-070C.

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 (2010)

2000-081C(26640)     LDREX                           21 March
2009-053A(35940)     SOYUZ-TMA 16                    18 March
2009-038B(35690)     DRAGONSAT                       17 March
2009-055B(35947)     DELTA 2 R/B                     11 March
2003-055B(28099)     STRELA R/B                      10 March
2010-007E(36404)     SL-12 R/B(1)                    03 March
2010-007F(36405)     SL-12 PLAT                      02 March

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/