SPACEWARN Activities

2010-070B

Koreasat 6, a Korean communications satellite, was launched from Kourou on 29 December 2010 at 21:27 UT by an Ariane 5 rocket. Koreasat 6 will upgrade broadcasting service quality by providing enhanced HD and 3D satellite TV programs. It has 30 Ku-band transponders for telecommunications and direct-to-home TV transmissions. Koreasat 6 will park in a geostationary orbital slot at 116° E longitude. It will replace Koreasat 3.

2010-070A

Hispasat 1E, a Spanish communications satellite, was launched from Kourou on 29 December 2010 at 21:27 UT by an Ariane 5 rocket. Hispasat 1E will provide Hispasat with additional capacity, enabling it to offer a broader range of video and data transmission services with European and pan-American coverage. The satellite carries 53 Ku-band transponders and a Ka-band capability. Using its on-board engine to circularize the orbit, in the coming days it will park in a geostationary orbit over the equator at 30° W longitude alongside Hispasat 1C and 1D. Hispasat 1E has a design life of 18 years.

2010-069A

KA-SAT, a European communications satellite, was launched from Baikonur on 26 December 2010 at 21:51 UT by a Proton rocket. KA-SAT is Europe's first satellite with an exclusively Ka-band communications payload. The craft carries 82 Ka-band spot beams to provide 70 Gbit/s of capacity across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Each of its beams can handle up to 900 Mbit/s of two-way communications traffic. KA-SAT will park in a geosynchronous orbital location at 9° E. The expected operational life of KA-SAT is 15 years.

2010-068A

Beidou IGSO 2, a Chinese navigation satellite, was launched from Xichang on 17 December 2010 at 20:20 UT on a Long March 3A rocket. Beidou IGSO is the fifth craft to join the country's fleet of positioning satellites in 2010. The Beidou fleet will provide Chinese military and citizens an indigenous source of precise navigation information. The Beidou network is expected to provide positioning and navigation services with a positioning accuracy of about 10 m for China and neighboring countries by 2012. More precise navigation data will be provided to Chinese government and military users. Global service is expected to be available from up to 35 Beidou satellites by 2020.

2010-067A

Soyuz-TMA 20, a Russian satellite, was launched from Baikonur on 15 December 2010 at 19:09 UT on a Soyuz rocket. The manned craft carried a multi-national crew of a Russian cosmonaut, an Italian astronaut, and a NASA astronaut. The satellite docked to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) Nadir port on 17 December 2010 at 20:11 UT. The three crew members will join three colleagues on-board the ISS and will perform normal maintenance, research, and two Russian-segment spacewalks as well as unload a variety of supply ships. Soyuz-TMA 20 is scheduled to undock and return to Earth on 16 May 2011.

2010-066J

Mayflower was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket. Mayflower, also known as Mayflower-Caerus, is a triple unit CubeSat built as a joint mission by Novaworks of Northrop Grumman and the University of Southern California as a technology mission. Mayflower is a 2U CubeSat-sized module built by Novaworks as a next-generation CubeSat Flight Testbed. Caerus is a 1U CubeSat structure used as the payload module of the spacecraft. USC built the module based on a Pumpkin 1U CubeSat kit. It transmits beacon data in the amateur band.

2010-066H

Perseus 000 is a nanosatellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket.

2010-066G

Perseus 002 is a nanosatellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket.

2010-066F

QBX1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket. It is a triple unit CubeSat nanosatellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Colony-1 program. It will be used to test technologies in orbit.

2010-066E

Perseus 001 is a nanosatellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket.

2010-066D

Perseus 003 is a nanosatellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket.

2010-066C

SMDC ONE (Space Missile Defense Command-Operational Nanosatellite Effect) was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket. SMDC-ONE will be used to develop a small experimental communications satellite constellation for the US Army. Its mission objectives are to: (1) demonstrate the ability to rapidly design and develop militarily relevant low cost spacecraft; (2) receive packetized data from multiple Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) and transmit that data to ground stations within the SMDC-ONE ground track; (3) provide real-time voice and text message data relay to and from field-deployed tactical radio systems; and, (4) demonstrate an operational lifetime of 12 months or longer.

2010-066B

QBX2 was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket. It is a triple unit CubeSat nanosatellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Colony-1 program. It will be used to test technologies in orbit.

2010-066A

Dragon C1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on 08 December 2010 at 15:43 UT on a Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft conducted a series of demonstrations in orbit as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in support of the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule has a pressurized volume of 10 m³. The "trunk" section has a volume of 14 m³ and can be used to transport unpressurized cargo or deploy small satellites. With some modifications the capsule will have the ability to transport a manned crew. On 08 December 2010 at 19:00 UT the Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the United States. This was the first time a commercial organization has recovered a spacecraft from orbit.

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 2F-1 (2010-022A).

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 2010-041C, 2010-041B,and 2010-041A.

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)

2010-066E(37248)     Perseus 001                     31 December
2010-066D(37247)     Perseus 003                     31 December
2010-066H(37251)     Perseus 000                     30 December
2010-066G(37250)     Perseus 002                     30 December
2010-066J(37252)     Mayflower                       22 December
2010-067B(37255)     SL-4 R/B                        19 December
2010-060B(37217)     Delta 2 R/B                     16 December
2010-049C(37172)     SL-6 R/B(1)                     14 December
2010-066A(37244)     Dragon C1                       08 December
1991-065D(21709)     SL-6 R/B(2)                     06 December
2010-015A(36514)     OTV 1/X-37B (USA 212)           03 December

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/