SPACEWARN Bulletin, SPX-605

  A publication of NASA NSSDC/WDC for Satellite Information, and the 
       World Warning Agency for Satellites, for COSPAR/ISES.

    (All information in this publication was received between
               1 March 2004 and 31 March 2004.)

A.  List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UT).
    (USSPACECOM Catalog numbers are in parentheses.)
        
      COSPAR/WWAS  USSPACECOM  SPACECRAFT           
          INT.ID    CAT. #      NAME                LAUNCH DATE, UT
     -------------------------------------------------------------
          2004-010A (28194) COSMOS 2406                27 March 2004
          2004-009A (28190) NAVSTAR 54 (USA 177)       20 March 2004
          2004-008A (28187) EUTELSAT W3A               15 March 2004
          2004-007A (28184) MBSAT                      13 March 2004
          2004-006A (28169) ROSETTA                    02 March 2004

B. Text of Launch Information

2004-010A  COSMOS 2406 is a Russian geostationary military spacecraft
           that was launched by a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur on 27 March 
           2004. 

2004-009A  NAVSTAR 54, also known as USA 177 and as GPS 2R-11 is an 
           American navigational satellite in the GPS fleet. It was launched
           by a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 17:39 UT on 20 March 
           2004. It will take Slot 3 in Plane C, replacing the aging GPS 2A-19.
           The fleet consists of 24 operational satellites (plus a few spares)
           located in six (inertial) planes with four slots in each. The
           initial orbital parameters were period 718 min, apogee 20,277 km,
           perigee 20090 km, and inclination 55.1 deg.

2004-008A  EUTELSAT W3A is a geostationary communications satellite 
           belonging to that European consortium, and was launched by a 
           Proton-M rocket (with a Breeze-M upper stage) from Baikonur at
           23:06 UT on 15 March 2004. The 4.4 tonne satellite carries a total 
           of 58 Ku-band transponders and a few steerable transmission beams 
           to provide direct-to-home voice, data, and video channels to Europe,
           Middle East and Africa. It will replace the W3 satellite at 7 deg-E 
           longitude.

2004-007A  MBSAT (Mobile Broadcasting SATellite) is a Japanese-South Korean
           geostationary communications satellite that was launched by an
           Atlas 3 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 05:40 UT on 13 March 2004. 
           The 4.1 tonne satellite will provide video, CD-quality radio, and 
           data to cellular phones and other portable devices in Japan and
           South Korea, after parking over 144 deg-E longitude.

2004-006A  ROSETTA is a European (ESA) cometary probe that was launched by 
           an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at 07:17 UT on 2 March 2004. The 
           three tonne spacecraft will orbit around a comet named 
           67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after releasing a lander named Philae 
           sometime in 2014. On the way to reaching the comet, it will
           undergo one Mars swingby (in February 2007) and three Earth Swingbys
           (March 2005, November 2007, and November 2009) to boost its speed 
           and undertake a 675 million km cruise. The mission will have ground
           support/commands from RMOC at ESOC, the DSN stations in Madrid,
           Spain, and Goldstone, USA, and the New Norcia station near Perth,
           Australia. The science operations center, RSOC will handle the
           science data acquisition and dissemination. 

           ROSETTA is a cubical box (2.8 m x 2.1 m x 2.0 m) with two solar 
           panels of size 14 m x 2.3 m. Besides the lander, it carries 11 
           instruments to sense the comet. Gerhard Schwehm of ESA's ESTEC, 
           Netherlands is the Project Scientist for the mission. Details of 
           the mission is available thru, http://www.esa.int/export/esaMI/
           Rosetta. The 11 instruments are outlined below.

           ALICE is a UV spectrometer that will monitor the sublimation rates
           of water vapor and carbon monoxide/dioxide. S. A. Stern, SwRI, 
           Boulder, Co, USA is the Principal Investigator.

           CONSERT (COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave 
           Transmission) will transmit radiowaves that will penetrate the 
           cometary nucleus (and received by the CONSERT on the lander) to 
           probe the inhomogeneity of the nucleus as an assemblage of
           component "cometesimals". W. Kofman, LPG, Grenoble, France is the 
           Principal Investigator.

           COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer) will analyze the 
           composition of key atomic elements and organic molecules in the
           cometary dust (in the tail). J. Kissel, MPAe, Katlenburg-Lindau, 
           Germany is the Principal Investigator.

           GIADA (Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator) will measure the 
           number, mass, momentum and velocity distribution of the dust grains.
           L. Colangeli, Oss Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy is the 
           Principal Investigator.

           MIDAS (Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System) will provide the 
           population, size, volume and shape of the grains. W. Riedler, IWF, 
           Graz, Austria is the Principal Investigator.

           MIRO (Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter) is a radiometer that
           will monitor the surface temperature of the comet (and a few 
           asteroids during its cruise phase). It will also monitor the
           abundance of water vapor and carbon monoxide, to determine how the 
           sublimation varies according to the distance from the Sun. 
           S. Gulkis, NASA-JPL, Pasadena, CA, USA is the Principal Investigator.

           OSIRS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote-imaging System) 
           is a joint wide-angle and narrow-angle panchromatic camera to
           photograph the cometary nucleus. H. U. Keller, MPAe, Katlenburg-
           Lindau, Germany, is the Principal Investigator.  

           ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis)
           carries two sensors to determine the composition of the comet's 
           atmosphere and ionosphere, and the velocities of ions. H. Balsiger, 
           University of Bern, Switzerland is the Principal Investigator.

           RPC (Rosetta Plasma Consortium) carries five sensors to measure 
           the physical properties of the cometary nucleus, examine the 
           structure of the inner coma, monitor cometary activity, and study 
           the comet's interaction with the solar wind. Among the 
           co-investigators is R. Lundin, Swedish Institute of Physics, Kiruna,
           Sweden.

           RSI (Radio Science Investigation) will infer the ionization in the
           cometary environment by analysing Rosetta's telemetry waves that
           passed through the environment on the way to Earth. The Principal
           Investigator is M. Patzold, University of Cologne, Germany.

           VIRTIS (Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) will map
           the nature of the solids, and the temperature of the nucleus' 
           surface. It will also identify the gases in the coma and help 
           identify a suitable landing site. The Principal Investigator is 
           A. Coradini, IFSI, Rome, Italy.

           PHILAE is the lander of mass 100 kg, and is covered by solar 
           panels. It will unfold its three legs upon release from the orbiter, 
           which will help to damp out the impact and enable the lander 
           to stand upright. Upon landing, it will fire a harpoon to anchor 
           it to the soil. The data from the instruments will be sent to the 
           ground stations via the orbiter. It has three Project Managers: 
           Stephen Ulamac, DLR, Koln Proz-Wahn, Germany; Denis Moura, CNES,
           Toulouse, France; and R. Mugnuolo, Italian Space Agency, Matera, 
           Italy. The WDC_SI will assign an International/COSPAR ID, 2004-006C
           after it lands on the comet. The following are the instruments on 
           PHILAE.

           APXS (Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer) will help infer the atomic
           composition of the cometary surface minerals. The Principal 
           Investigator is Rudolf Rieder, Max Planck Institut fur Chemie,
           Mainz, Germany.

           CIVA is a set of six identical micro-cameras that will take 
           panoramic pictures of the cometary surface. Jean-Pierre Bibring of
           the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, University of Paris, France is
           the Principal Investigator.

           CONSERT (COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave 
           Transmission) in the lander will receive the transmissions from the
           CONSERT instrument on the orbiter. Wlodek Kofman of the Laboratoire
           de Planetologie, Grenoble, France is the Principal Investigator.

           COSAC (COmetary Sampling And Composition experiment) is a gas 
           analyzer that will identify the organic molecules emanating from
           the comet. Helmut Rosenbauer of the Max-Planck Institut fur 
           Aeronomie, Lindau, Germany is the Principal Investigator.

           MODULUS PTOLEMY is a gas analyzer that will provide isotopic ratios
           of light elements. Ian Wright, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
           is the Principal Investigator.

           MUPUS consists of sensors to ascertain the density, and thermal and 
           mechanical properties of the surface. Tilman Spohn, Universitat 
           Munster, Germany is the Principal Investigator.

           ROLIS (ROsetta Lander Imaging System) is a CCD camera to obtain high-
           resolution pictures during landing, and panoramic images of areas
           sampled by other instruments. Stefano Mottola, DLR, Berlin, Germany
           is the Principal Investigator.

           ROMAP (ROsetta lander Magnetometer And PLasma monitor) consists of
           a magnetometer and a plasma probe to monitor the cometary
           environment and the impacting solar wind. Hans-Ulrich Auster, 
           Technische Universitat, Braunschweig, Germany is the Principal 
           Investigator.

           SD2 (Sampling and Distribution device) will drill 20 cm into the 
           cometary surface, collect samples either for microscopic inspection
           or for sending it to different ovens. Ercol Finzi, Politechnico,
           Milan, Italy is the Principal Investigator.

           SESAME (Surface Electrical, Seismic and Acoustic Monitoring 
           Experiment) will emit and receive sound waves that have traversed
           the surface. Dietrich Mohlmann, DLR, Cologne, Germany is a Principal
           Investigator.

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. Updates or corrections to the list are possible only with
information from the user community.)

      THE FULL LIST APPEARED IN SPX 545. (See http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
      spacewarn/)
      THE LIST WILL NOT BE REPEATED IN  FUTURE ISSUES, UNTIL SIGNIFICANTLY
      REVISED AGAIN.
      
    2. 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 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.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/gps_f.html.
It provides many links to GPS-related data bases.

The latest addition to the fleet is NAVSTAR 54, 2004-009A.

    3. Russian Global Navigational (Positioning) Spacecraft, GLONASS
constellation. SPACEWARN requests updates or additions from readers 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-545.
It will not be repeated in view of the excellent updated source, with the URL
http://www.glonass-center.ru/frame.html, maintained by the Coordinational 
Scientific Information Center (CSIC), Russian Space Forces.

    4. Visually bright objects. A comprehensive list of visually bright objects 
with their 2-line orbital elements is available from USSPACECOM, via a NASA 
URL. Go to Sec C-6 below and, after steps (1) through (6), click on "Special 
Interest Group Report". Then click on "Visible Interest Satellites", along 
with "Header and TLE". The list does not provide visual magnitude, but are
expected to be brighter than magnitude 5.

    5. Actual decays or landings of payload spacecraft and rocket bodies (R/B)
only. No further information is available.

Designations         Common Name                  Decay Date (UT), 2004
------------         -----------                     ----------
2004-010C (28196)  R/B(1) Proton-K                   29 March
2001-057A (27053)  COSMOS 2383                       20 March
1970-037A (04393)  METEOR 1-4                        16 March
1985-061D (15916)  R/B(2) that launched MOLNIYA 3-25 08 March
1996-005F (23813)  R/B (Aux.Mot.) Proton             07 March

    6. 60-day Decay Predictions. The USSPACECOM forecasts and maintains a 
list of decays of orbiting objects expected in the next 60 days, with fair 
accuracy. The list may be accessed through a NASA site, http://oig1.gsfc.
nasa.gov/scripts/foxweb.exe/app01?, as follows. (1) Click on "OIG Main Page". 
(2) Click on "Send Message to System administrator", who will provide a login 
account. (3) After getting an ID and a Password, click on "Registered User 
Login". (Step (2) is not needed after obtaining an account.) (4) Click on 
"Continue". (5) Click on "General information". (6) Click on "Reports". (7) 
Click on "Sixty Day Decay......". The login need is enforced after the 11 
September 2001 events.

   7. 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.)

   8. Related NSSDC resources.

NSSDC/WDC for Satellite Information is an archival center for science data
from many spacecraft. Many datasets are on-line for electronic access, through
the URL,
               http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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 elements of many magnetospheric and heliospheric science-
payload spacecraft may be obtained from:
            ftp://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/orbits

Other files of interest for Earth-centered s/c can be generated through the URL,
                  http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Codes related to the heliospheric spacecraft trajectories can be executed
through the URL,
                 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/helios/heli.html
Descriptions of many spacecraft, experiments and datasets are available
through links from
                  http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/sc-query.html

===========================================================================

                         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.

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).

The bulletin may be accessed through the World Wide Web (WWW). The URL is
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/

Users are encouraged to submit their comments and suggestions for the
improvement of this bulletin to SPACEWARN Bulletin: WWAS@NDADSB.GSFC.NASA.GOV.

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 emails, news
papers, and some Web sites.