SPACEWARN Bulletin, SPX-631

  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 May 2006 and 31 May 2006.)

A.  List of New International Designations and Launch Dates (UT).
    (USSTRATCOM, formerly USSPACECOM, Catalog numbers are in parentheses.)
        
      COSPAR/WWAS  USSTRATCOM  SPACECRAFT           
          INT.ID    CAT. #      NAME                LAUNCH DATE, UT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
     2006-020B     29163     THAICOM 5              27 May 2006 
     2006-020A     29162     SATMEX 6               27 May 2006
     2006-019A     29157     COMPASS 2              26 May 2006
     2006-018A     29155     GOES 13                24 May 2006
     2006-017A     29111     COSMOS 2420            03 May 2006
     
B. Text of Launch Information

2006-020B  THAICOM 5 is a Thai geostationary communications satellite that
           was launched by an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou at 21:09 UT on 
           27 May 2006. The 2.8 tonne (with fuel) triaxially-stabilized craft 
           will provide television and internet services to the Asia-Pacific
           region through its 25 C-band and 14 Ku-band transponders after 
           parking over 78.5 deg-E longitude. It will replace the aging 
           THAICOM 1 and THAICOM 2 satellites that were launched in 1993 and 
           1994.

2006-020A  SATMEX 6 is a Mexican geostationary communications satellite that
           was launched by an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou at 21:09 UT on 
           27 May 2006. The 5.7 tonne (with fuel) craft will provide voice, 
           data, and video services to Mexico, South America and continental 
           United States, through its 36 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders 
           after parking over 109.2 deg-W longitude.

2006-019A  COMPASS 2 (Complex Orbital Magneto-Plasma Autonomous Small 
           Satellite 2) is a Russian (IZMIRAN) ionospheric microsatellite that
           was launched by a Shtil 1 rocket (a modified submarine-based 
           ICBM) from a nuclear submarine in Barents Sea at 18:50 UT on
           26 May 2006. It is also known as KOMPAS 2 in Russian language. The
           80 kg satellite carries detectors for electromagnetic signatures 
           created by/before earthquakes and volcanoes. The initial orbital 
           parameters were period 93.9 min, apogee 525 km, perigee 402 km, and
           inclination 78.9 deg.

2006-018A  GOES 13 is an American (NOAA) geostationary weather satellite 
           that was launched by a Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 22:11
           UT on 24 May 2006. The 3.2 tonne (with fuel), 2.3 kW craft carries the
           usual set of GOES monitors: imager, sounder, SEM package, X-ray 
           imager, energetic particle detector, and ground-data relaying 
           equipment. The parking longitude is yet to be finalized. More 
           details are available at http://www.oso.noaa.gov/goes/  

           Imager: This is a multi-channel instrument covering 0.52-13.7 micron
           band in five discrete channels. It carries a two-axis scanning 
           mirror to scan east-west and north-south, covering the entire 
           hemisphere below it. Clouds are imaged in four channels, water vapor
           in one channel, and surface temperature in one (or three) channels, 
           fires and smoke in two (or four) channels.

           Sounder: The so-called Sounder carries a 19-channel, discrete-filter,
           passive radiometer covering the wavelength range of 0.7-14.71 
           microns. It looks toward the horizon to monitor the radiation; the 
           data can then be processed to provide vertical profiles of 
           temperature, water vapor, and clouds.

           SEM: The Space Environment Monitor is a standard package in all GOES 
           missions. It carries an energetic particle sensor (EPS)to obtain the
           local fluxes of electrons, protons and alpha-particles. Its XRS
           monitors to X-ray flux from the Sun in two wavelength bands: 0.05-
           0.3 nm, and 0.1-0.8 nm. A magnetometer monitors the field vector 
           of the disturbed by geomagnetic activity. A five-channel EUV 
           telescope monitors the solar ultraviolet radiation in the 10-126 nm
           band.

           X-Ray Imager: The imager maps the X-ray emitting regions on the Sun
           in the bands 0.6-3.0 and 0.6-6.0 nm, once a minute. The resolution
           is about 3 arc-min, covering the field of view of 42 arc-min.

2006-017A  COSMOS 2420 is a Russia military satellite that was launched by
           a Soyuz-U rocket from Plesetsk at 17:38 UT on 03 May 2006. The 
           initial orbital parameters were period 89.8 min, apogee 337 km, 
           perigee 189 km, and inclination 67.2 deg.

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 57, 2005-038A.

    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/, maintained by the Coordinational Scientific 
Information Center (CSIC), Russian Space Forces. According to CSIC the
latest addition to the fleet are GLONASS 712, GLONASS 796, and GLONASS 797.
Their International IDs are 2005-050A, 2005-050B, and 2005-050C.

    4. Visually bright satellites/rockets.
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/bulk_files.pl. Users must register.
Conditions apply. The list has not been updated since a long time ago.

    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), 2006
------------         -----------                     ----------
2003-060F (28199)     R/B (Aux.Mot) Proton-K             13 May

   6. 60-day decay predictions.
See http://www.space-track.org/perl/60day_decay_predict.pl. Users must
register for access. Conditions apply.

   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 URLs,
   http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/, and http://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/
For off-line data, please contact the Request Office, NSSDC, Code 690.1, NASA
GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, U.S.A., for specific information (REQUEST@
MAIL630.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@MAIL630.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.

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, news papers, and some Web sites.