SPX-531 1 February 1998 SPACEWARN Activities A publication of NASA NSSDC/WDC-A-R&S and the WWAS for ISES/COSPAR (All information in this publication was received between 1 January 1998 and 31 January 1998.) A. List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UT). (USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.) 1998-005A (25148) CAPRICORN (USA 137?) 29 Jan 1998-004A (25146) SOYUZ TM-27 29 Jan 1998-003A (25143) STS 89 23 Jan 1998-002A (25134) SKYNET 4D 10 Jan 1998-001A (25131) LUNAR PROSPECTOR 07 Jan B. Text of Launch Announcements. 1998-005A CAPRICORN is an American military photo/radar imaging spacecraft that was launched by an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral at 18:37 UT. It is built, owned and operated by the National Reconnoissance Office (NRO). The alternative name, "USA 137" remains to be confirmed. It is likely that the initial apogee of about 38,400 km will be at a high northern latitude, and the perigee of 320 km will be over the Antarctica. 1998-004A SOYUZ TM-27 is a Russian transportation spacecraft that was launched from Baikonur at 16:33 UT to dock with MIR. The 7,000 kg spacecraft carried three cosmonauts and food supplies to the MIR. Initial orbital parameters were period 88.6 min, apogee 202 km, perigee 198 km, and inclination 51.5 deg. 1998-003A STS 89 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 02:48 UT to reach and dock with MIR to deliver a new American astronaut for endurance and experience in MIR and to bring back an earlier American astronaut after his four months of stay. It also carried 1,500 kg of supplies and docked at 20:14 UT on 24 January. STS 89 also carried resources for some microgravity experiments with names like Closed Equilibrated Biological Aquatic System (CEBAS), Microgravity Plant Nutrient Experiment (MPNE), and Interferometer Protein Crystal Growth (IPCG). For more details see URL http://shuttle.nasa.gov/sts-89/orbit/ payloads/. It undocked from MIR at 16:56 UT on 29 January and returned to Cape Canaveral at 22:38 UT on 31 January. Initial orbital parameters were period 92.2 min, apogee 385 km, perigee 379 km, and inclination 51.7 deg. 1998-002A SKYNET 4D is a British military geosynchronous communications spacecraft that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station at 00:32 UT. The 1,150 kg spacecraft is the first in the new series that is expected to replace the aging 1988-era series. The parking longitude is expected to be in western Europe. 1998-001A LUNAR PROSPECTOR is an American planetology spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket at 02:29 UT. It reached the Lunar vicinity after 105 hours of cruising to orbit the Moon at a nominal altitude of about 100 km from the surface with a period of 118 min. The altitude may be maneuvered to be as low as 9 km. The 65 kg spacecraft carries a gamma ray spectrometer, a magnetometer, an electron reflectometer, a neutron spectrometer, and an Alpha particle spectrometer to probe the surface composition of the Moon for about a year. Of particular interest to NASA is whether there is any ice under the polar caps; the neutron spectrometer will help to determine the. More details of the instruments are available at URL http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/ science/index.html. C. Spacecraft Particularly Suited for International Participation. 1. 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; an asterisk [*] indicates updated or new information since the last issue. Updates or corrections to the list are possible only with information from the user community.) SEE LIST IN SPX-520. THE LIST WILL REAPPEAR ONLY AFTER MAJOR UPDATES TO THE LIST ARE AVAILABLE. METEOSAT 3 in that list is no longer operational. 2. Global Positioning System satellites useful for navigational purposes and geodetic studies. ("NNN" denotes no national name. SPACEWARN Bulletin appreciates 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]). 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 SPX-518. It will not be repeated since an excellent source of trajectory- and science-related GPS information is at URL http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html#DODSystem. It provides many links to GPS-related data bases. The latest member of the GPS fleet is NAVSTAR 38 (1997-067A), launched on 6 November 1997. 3. Russian Global Navigational (Positioning) Spacecraft, GLONASS constellation. (SPACEWARN requests updates or additions from readers to this list. An asterisk [*] indicates updates or additions to the list.) All GLONASS spacecraft are in the general COSMOS series. The COSMOS numbers invoked by USSPACECOM have sometimes differed from the numbers (NNNN) associated in Russia. The operating frequencies in MHz are computed from the channel number K. Frequencies (MHz) are L1 = 1602.0 + 0.5625K and L2 = 1246.0 + 0.4375K. The standard format of the GLONASS situation appeared in SPX-515. It will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source, with the URL http://www.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/glonass.html, maintained by the Coordinational Scientific Information Center (CSIC), Russian Space Forces. 4. Actual decays or landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B) only. No further information is available. Designations Common Name 1998 1998-003A (25143) STS 89 Landed on 31 Jan 1997-077C (25079) R/B LONG MARCH 2/3 20 Jan 1996-008B (23785) R/B DELTA 2 17 Jan 1998-001B (25132) R/B DELTA 2 07 Jan 1997-048C (24927) R/B LONG MARCH 3 06 Jan 1997-035B (24877) R/B DELTA 2 02 Jan 1997-086B (25127) R/B PROTON-K 27 Dec 1997 5. 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.) CORRECTION TO SPX-528 In section B it was reported that STEP-1, STEP-2, and STEP-3 were launch failures. TRW Inc. has now reported that STEP-2 launch was not a failure and that it had been operational during its planned lifetime. CORRECTION TO SPX-529 Because of inadvertence during editing, the spacecraft names and numbers were misaligned by one line in the hard copy version of the bulletin; the on-line version carried the correct list. The correct list is given below: A. List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UT). (USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.) 1997-074B (25064) KIKU-7 27 Nov 1997-069C (25041) IRIDIUM 40 09 Nov 1997-074A (25063) TRMM 27 Nov 1997-069B (25040) IRIDIUM 41 09 Nov 1997-073B (25062) SPARTAN 201-4 21 Nov 1997-069A (25039) IRIDIUM 43 09 Nov 1997-073A (25061) STS 87 19 Nov 1997-068A (25034) USA 136 07 Nov 1997-072A (25059) RESURS F-1M 18 Nov 1997-067A (25030) NAVSTAR 38 06 Nov 1997-071B (25051) CAKRAWARTA 1 12 Nov 1997-058C (24958) SPUTNIK Jr 03 Nov 1997-071A (25050) SIRIUS 2 12 Nov 1997-066C (25025) YES 30 Oct 1997-070A (25045) KUPON 12 Nov 1997-066B (25024) MAQSAT-B 30 Oct 1997-069E (25043) IRIDIUM 38 09 Nov 1997-066A (25023) MAQSAT-H 30 Oct 1997-069D (25042) IRIDIUM 39 09 Nov 1997-065A (25019) DSCS 3 25 Oct ============ India purchased ARABSAT 1C from that consortium and moved it to the parking longitude of 55 deg-E; it was then renamed INSAT 2DT and became operational to carry out the relays in place of INSAT 2D, which became inoperational about two months ago. INSAT 2DT carries 25 C-band transponders and one S-band transponder. NSSDC/WDC-A-R&S is an archival center for science data from many spacecraft. Some data are on line for electronic access. 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 FTP'ed from NSSDC's ANON_DIR:[000000.ACTIVE] and its several subdirectories. (See the last page of the bulletin for the access method; a file in the ACTIVE directory named AAREADME.DOC outlines the contents.) It can also be accessed through the WWW URL http://sscop1.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc.html This HTML also enables executing several codes related to the orbits of many geocentric science payload spacecraft. The codes related to the heliospheric spacecraft trajectories can be executed through the URL http://nssdc/space/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/ =========================================================================== SPACEWARN Bulletin The bulletin is intended to serve as an international communication medium for the rapid distribution of information on satellites and space probes. The material it contains is based on guidelines in the COSPAR Guide to Rocket and Satellite Information and Data Exchange, COSPAR Transactions #8, December 1972, and various Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) resolutions. Hard copy recipients and electronic accessers are encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to interested individuals and institutions in their regions or countries. All bulletins beginning with January 1991 (SPX-447) are now available on line; the SPX number increases by one for each succeeding month (for example, the January 1993 bulletin is SPX-471). Through DECnet: At the prompt type: copy nssdca::anon_dir:[000000.active.spx]spx.471 Through FTP, at the prompt type: ftp nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov At the next prompt type: anonymous At the PASSWORD (NSSDCA.GSFC.GOV.ANONYMOUS) prompt hit: return At the next prompt type: get anon_dir:[000000.active.spx]spx.471 spx.471 Other subdirectories in [000000.active] carry many files of interest on science payload spacecraft. The bulletin may also be accessed through the World Wide Web (WWW). The URL is http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spacewarn.html. Users are urged to submit their comments and suggestions for the improvement of this bulletin to SPACEWARN Bulletin, World Data Center-A for Rockets and Satellites, Code 633, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A. Categories of Spacecraft To improve the effectiveness of international distribution of satellite and space probe information via the SPACEWARN system, spacecraft are identified in categories according to the urgency and detail of information needed by the scientific community as follows: CATEGORY 1: Spacecraft that carry essentially continuous telemetry or radio beacons, usually on frequencies less than 150 MHz. CATEGORY 2: GPS constellation of positioning/navigational spacecraft. CATEGORY 3: GLONASS constellation of positioning/navigational spacecraft. CATEGORY 4: Occasionally, a list of bright, orbiting objects of visual magnitude 4 or brighter. The bulletin also carries launch dates, international IDs, and USSPACECOM catalog numbers, followed by a brief outline of the payload and orbital parameters, re-entry of major objects, and miscellaneous sections. These data are based on launch announcements or on information received from individuals, launching authorities, FBIS and USSPACECOM telexes, and news magazines.