PRESS RELEASE Date Released:
Wednesday, March 1, 2000
Source: Spacewarn Bulletin
01 March 2000
A publication of NASA's National Space Science Data Center/World Data Center for Satellite Information as the WWAS for ISES/COSPAR
SPACEWARN Activities
All information in this publication was received between
1 February 2000 and 29 February 2000.
A. List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UTC).
USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.
2000-012A (26095) Superbird 4 18 February
2000-011A (26089) Garuda 1 12 February
2000-010A (26088) STS 99 11 February
2000-009B (26087) Fregat 08 February
2000-009A (26086) Dumsat 08 February
2000-008D (26084) Globalstar D 08 February
2000-008C (26083) Globalstar C 08 February
2000-008B (26082) Globalstar B 08 February
2000-008A (26081) Globalstar A 08 February
2000-007A (26071) HispaSat 1C 03 February
2000-006A (26069) Cosmos 2369 03 February
2000-005A (26067) Progress M-1 01 February
2000-004H (26080) Tethered Picosats 27 January
2000-004J (26091) Picosat 5 27 January
2000-004K (26092) Picosat 6 27 January
2000-004L (26093) Picosat 7 27 January
2000-004M (26094) Picosat 8 27 January
B. Text of Launch Announcements.
2000-012A
Superbird 4
is a Japanese geosynchronous communications spacecraft
that was launched by an Ariane 44 rocket from Kourou at 01:04 UT.
The 4.1 tonne spacecraft carries 23 Ku-band (80 W), and six Ka-band
(50 W) transponders to provide business communications to Japan and
Asia-Pacific countries, after parking over 162-E longitude. Its
thrusters employ a xenon ion propulsion (XIPS) system.
2000-011A
Garuda 1
is an Indonesian geosynchronous satellite that was launched
by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur at 09:11 UT. The 4.q tonne
spacecraft will relay in L-band mobile telephone communications in
Asia-Pacific region, after parking over Indonesia at the equator. It is
the first of the ACeS (Asia Cellular Satellite) constellation, to be
followed by Garuda 2 and others.
2000-010A
STS 99
is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from
Cape Canaveral at 17:43 UT. The main mission is to obtain a 3-D map
of about 70% global terrain. It is a joint mapping mission by NASA
and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), utilizing the
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) radars. The 13,600 kg SRTM
instrument consisted of a pair of transmit/receive antennas below
the cargo bay, and a pair of receiving antennas at the end of a 60
m "rigid" tower. The operation was in interferometric synthetic
aperture radar (IF-SAR) modes with steerable C-band (5.6 cm) and
a non-steerable X-band (3.0 cm) transmissions of pulse widths 100
milliseconds, and power levels 10 kW. The accuracy of the mapping
was modest: in any "terrain" segment, the relative height accuracy
was 10 m and the relative horizontal accuracy was 20 m; on forests,
the surface of reflection at both frequencies were the canopy tops,
not the terrain. The tower was an assembly of stacked cubical
frames made of steel, titanium and plastic, initially contained in a
three meter can, pushed out by a motor and held in rigid shape by a
thruster at the high end. It was erected at an angle of 45°
from the vertical. The cargo bay antennas and the transmitters were
the same that were used in the SIR-C/X-SAR radars that were flown
on two shuttle missions in 1994. SRTM just had additional receiving
antennas at the end of the mast to do interferometry. It landed
back in Cape Canaveral on 22 February at 23:22 UT after mapping 112
million square-kilometers of earth's land mass onto 300 digital tapes.
Data reduction at analysis centers will take two or three years to
complete. More information on SRTM is available at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/,
and the data will be distributed by the EROS Data
Center,
http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/.
Initial orbital
parameters were period 89.2 min, apogee 242 km, perigee 224 km, and
inclination 57°.
2000-009B
Fregat
is a Russian reusable spacecraft that was launched by
a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 23:20 UT. It is primarily a rocket
that is equipped with an inflatable heat shield (IRDT) that opens
up during re-entry and appears like a giant shuttlecock. It is
capable of stopping and starting its engines at least five times
during a mission so as to launch about 20 satellites in different
orbits. It carried and released a recoverable dummy satellite
called, Dumsat. Fregat is designed to execute major routine tasks,
hauling cargo to/from the International Space Station. Fregat is
believed to have re-entered after 5 orbits, as planned, but has not
yet been located in the southern Ural mountain region. In fact,
radio contact was lost at 100 km level. Initial orbital parameters
were period 96.5 min, apogee 604 km, perigee 581 km, and inclination
64.9°.
2000-009A
Dumsat
is a 110 kg Russian dummy payload to simulate future
spacecraft launches. Like the Fregat that launched it, it was
equipped with an inflatable heat shield and landed on 14 February
2000. Initial orbital parameters were period 96.6 min, apogee
606 km, perigee 581 km, and inclination 64.9°.
2000-008A, 2000-008B, 2000-008C, 2000-008D
Globalstars A, B, C, and D
are the final members of the Globalstar
fleet which already had the planned 48 satellites. With the addition
of these four, any four members of the 52 member fleet may be held
in reserve. The fleet enables relay of data and voice communications
from/to mobile or remote telephones located almost anywhere in the
world. Initial orbital parameters of all four were similar: period
103.5 min, apogee 930 km, perigee 914 km, and inclination 52°.
2000-007A
HispaSat 1C
is a Spanish geosynchronous communications spacecraft
that was launched by an Atlas 2AS rocket from Cape Canaveral at
23:30 UT. The 3,100 kg, 6,000 W spacecraft carries 24 transponders
in Ku-band to provide Spanish language voice and video
communications to countries on either side of the Atlantic.
2000-006A
Cosmos 2369
is a Russian military communications spacecraft that
was launched from Baikonur. Initial orbital parameters were
period 102 min, apogee 854 km, perigee 848 km, and inclination 71°.
2000-005A
Progress M-1
is a Russian automatic cargo carrier that was launched
by a Soyuz-U rocket at 06:47 UT to dock with Mir. It is equipped to
raise the altitude of Mir from 320 km to 400 km, and to repressurize
it with 150 kg of nitrogen. (Currently the pressure has degraded to
570 mm of Hg.) It also carried fuel, water, food and other
provisions for the two cosmonauts who are expected to arrive there
in late March 2000, to spend 7-10 weeks on board. The initial
orbital parameters were period 91.6 min, apogee 353 km, perigee 348
km, and inclination 51.7°.
Tethered Picosats, Picosat 5, Picosat 6, Picosat 7, and Picosat 8
are hectogram mass satellites that were ejected from OPAL
(2000-004C).
They were built mostly by engineering students at
Santa Clara University in California, from off-the-shelf components
and miniature batteries, for technology tests. According to our
information from the investigator teams, the Tethered Picosats,
consisting of a pair of Picosats tethered together by a short wire,
was ejected on 8 February, Picosats 7 and 8 on 11 February, and
Picosats 5 and 6 on 12 February. They have also common names given
by the investigators: Picosats 7 and 8 are the Thelma and Louise
pair and Picosats 5 and 6 are the JAK and Stensat pair; but not
necessarily in that order. The Tethered Picosats appear to have
been functional for a short while after ejection, communicating
with each other by microwatt radio transmitters. On the other hand,
there has been no indication whether any of the the Picosats (5, 6,
7,and 8) were operational at least soon after ejection. It appears
that USSPACECOM's Picosat numbers extending to eight is erroneous.
There were only six Picosats on board the OPAL, with perhaps
one or two at the ground level intended to communicate with the
orbiters. The tests were sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research
Project Agency (DARPA). The orbital parameters of all these were
nearly alike: period 100.4 min, apogee 805 km, perigee 750 km, and
inclination 100.2°.
C. Spacecraft Particularly Suited for International Participation
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.
Global Positioning System satellites useful for navigational
purposes and geodetic studies. ("NNN" denotes no national name. SPACEWARN
would appreciate suggestions to update this list. An asterisk [*] denotes
changes in this issue.)
High precision (<20 cm) GPS constellation tracking data obtained from
the network of about 80 dedicated global stations that are of interest to
geodetic study may be obtained through the following services provided
by the International Association of Geodesy (IGS)
Russian Global Navigational (Positioning) Spacecraft, GLONASS
constellation. (SPACEWARN requests updates/additions from readers to this list.
Entries marked "*" are updates or additions to the list.)
All GLONASS spacecraft are in the general COSMOS series. The COSMOS numbers
(nnnn) 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 appeared in SPX-545. It
will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source at:
http://www.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/english.html
maintained by the Coordinational
Scientific Information Center (CSIC),Russian Space Forces.
Actual decays/landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B)
only. No further information is available.
Designations Common Name 2000
1999-030B (25769) STARSHINE 18 Feb
1999-049E (25911) R/B Soyuz-U 17 Feb
1977-015B (09854) R/B that launched COSMOS 895 14 Feb
2000-009B (26087) FREGAT 09 Feb
1993-042C (22702) R/B Delta 2 05 Feb
1999-038A (25858) PROGRESS M-42 04 Feb
2000-005B (26068) R/B Soyuz-U 02 Feb
1998-011B (25176) R/B H-2 01 Feb
Miscellaneous Items. (This section contains information/data that
are entered on occasion and may not be repeated in each issue of the
SPACEWARN Bulletin.)
The American heliospheric spacecraft NEAR
(1996-008A)
was thrust into an orbit
around the asteroid Eros at 15:33 UT on 14 February 2000 in an elliptical orbit
of 320 km x 480 km from the asteroid. It is expected to orbit for a year
slowly reaching lower altitudes. Eros is a potato-shaped body of 34 km x 13
km size. A similar attempt in January 1999 had failed, and NEAR tumbled along
on an orbit around the Sun, returning again to the general vicinity of
Eros, with sunward orientation of its power panels. It could then be
maneuvered toward the asteroid. It is expected to produce many close-up
pictures of the asteroid.
The American planetary spacecraft Galileo
(1989-084B)
approached the
volcanic moon of Jupiter, Io, on 22 February 2000 within 200 km from its
surface without any radiation damage and produced pictures of the surface. It
had earlier (October 1999) approached the surface within 610 km and discovered
about 100 volcanoes. In November 1999 it had passed by within 300 km from the
surface and imaged a one kilometer-high lava plume.
On 22 February 2000, the heliospheric spacecraft Stardust
(99-033A) deployed
its interstellar dust collector. It will deploy again in 2002. The collector's
other surface will be exposed to cometary dust from Comet Wild-2 in 2004.
During its final Earth swingby in 2006, the collector will be released and
parachute down for analysis.
There have been difficulties in matching spacecraft names and their
IDs for launches involving multiple spacecraft. The USSPACECOM (presumably,
on the advice of the spacecraft companies) has the following revised names
to match the IDs and catalog numbers:
1998-008A (25162) GLOBALSTAR M001; 1998-008B (25163) GLOBALSTAR M004;
1998-008C (25164) GLOBALSTAR M002; 1998-008D (25165) GLOBALSTAR M003.
1999-065A (25980) ORBCOMM FM 30; 1999-065B (25981) ORBCOMM FM 31;
1999-065C (25982) ORBCOMM FM 32; 1999-065D (25983) ORBCOMM FM 33;
1999-065E (25984) ORBCOMM FM 36; 1999-065F (25985) ORBCOMM FM 35;
1999-065G (25986) ORBCOMM FM 34.
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 633,
NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A., for specific information
(request@nssdca.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 accessed via anonymous FTP from NSSDC.
(See About the SPACEWARN Bulletin
for access method; a file in the active directory named AAREADME.TXT,
outlines the contents.)
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