SPACEWARN Bulletin, SPX-591

  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 January 2003 and 31 January 2003.)

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
        _____________________________________________________
        2003-005B (27664)    XSS 10               29 January 2003
        2003-005A (27663)    NAVSTAR 51 (USA 166) 29 January 2003
        2003-004A (27651)    SORCE                25 January 2003
        2003-003A (27647)    STS 107              16 January 2003 
        2003-002B (27643)    CHIPS                13 January 2003
        2003-002A (27642)    ICESAT               13 January 2003
        2003-001A (27640)    CORIOLIS             06 January 2003

B.  Text of Launch Information

2003-005B  XSS 10 is an American (AFRL/DoD) technology demonstration
           microsatellite (28 kg) that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from 
           Cape Canaveral at 18:06 UT on 29 January 2003. It will also 
           monitor the second stage of Delta 2. Its battery-powered operational
           life was 24 hours. The initial orbital parameters were period 98 
           min, apogee 805 km, perigee 518 km, and inclination 39.75 deg.

2003-005A  NAVSTAR 51 (also known as USA 166, and as GPS 2R-8) is the latest
           to join the American (DoD) fleet of Global Positioning Satellites. 
           It was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 18:06 UT
           on 29 January 2003. The fleet is operating in full capacity with 24
           spacecraft (in six planes, with four satellites in each). GPS 2R-8
           will replace the aging GPS 2A-18, which will be shifted away
           in its Plane-B and then retired. More details of the GPS spacecraft
           can be seen in Section C-2 below. The initial orbital parameters 
           were period 356 min, apogee 20,351 km, perigee 173 km, and 
           inclination 39.1 deg.

2003-004A  SORCE (SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment) is an American (NASA)
           Sun-Earth Connection satellite that was launched at 20:13 UT by a
           Pegasus XL rocket released from a L-1011 cargo aircraft flying out
           of Cape Canaveral. It is to measure solar irradiance in a number of
           wavelength-bands through three spectrometers and a photometer.
           TIM (Total Irradiation Monitor) is a 7.9 kg, 14 W instrument that
           covers all visual and infrared wavelengths at an irradiance accuracy
           of one part in 10,000. It uses differential, heat sensitive
           resisters as detectors.
           SIM (Spectral Irradiance Monitor) is a 22 kg, 25 W rotating Fery 
           prism spectrometer with a bolometer output that covers the
           200-2,000 nm band at a resolution of a few nm, and at an irradiance
           accuracy of three parts in 10,000. 
           SOLSTICE (SOLar STellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment) A and B are
           36 kg, 33 W, UV grating spectrometers with photomultiplier detectors
           that cover the 115-320 nm band at a resolution of 0.1 nm, and at an
           irradiance accuracy of about 4%. It uses an ensemble of bright stars
           (selected for their stable luminosities) as calibrators for the 
           instrument variability.
           XPS (Xuv Photometer System) is a 3.6 kg, 9 W photometer which 
           invokes filters to monitor the x-ray and UV band at 1-34 nm, at a 
           resolution of about seven nm, and at an irradiance accuracy of 
           about 15%. 
           The URL, http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/ provides much detailed 
           descriptions of the experiments and data availability. The PI is 
           Gary J. Rottman of LASP, University of Colorado, Boulder, with 
           many co-investigators. The Program Manager is Tom Sparn of 
           LASP. The initial orbital parameters were period 93.4 min, 
           apogee 652.5 km, perigee 612.8 km, and inclination 40.0 deg.

2003-003A  STS 107 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from 
           Cape Canaveral at 15:39 UT on 16 January 2003. It was the first 
           flight in recent years that was not related to the International 
           Space Station (ISS) activities. It carried seven astronauts who 
           helped oversee 80 microgravity experiments on board. These ranged 
           from K-12 interest to significant commercial and scientific 
           potential. After a 16-day mission, the shuttle began its reentry on
           1 February 2003, but communications failed at 14:00 UT when the
           shuttle was at an altitude of 60 km with a speed  of 20,100 km/hr. 
           It soon disintegrated over western Texas on its path towards Cape 
           Canaveral. It was the 28th mission for the shuttle, Columbia. There 
           were no survivors. The initial orbital parameters of STS 107 was 
           period 90.1 min, apogee 285 km, perigee 270 km, and inclination 39
           deg.

 2003-002B  CHIPS (Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer) is an American
            (NASA) astrophysics spacecraft that was launched by a Delta 2
            rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 00:45 UT on 13 January 2003. The 60
            kg, triaxially-stabilized spacecraft has a spectrograph covering
            the 9-26 nm wavelength band at a resolution of 0.1 nm, scanning
            the entire sky in chunks of 5 deg x 27 deg segments during each 
            orbit. The targets are the hot and diffuse nebulae at about a 
            million degrees temperature. The band covers several strong 
            emission lines. The URL, http://chips.ssl.berkeley/mission.html 
            provides additional information. The initial orbital parameters 
            were period 96.4 min, apogee 594 km, perigee 578 km, and 
            inclination 94 deg.

2003-002A  ICESAT is an American (NASA) Earth Observing System spacecraft 
           that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 00:45 
           UT on 13 January 2003. It carries a single instrument, GLAS 
           (Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) which enables accurate surface
           level measurements of ice sheets. GLAS transmits four-nanosecond-
           wide pulses, one at 1,064 nm and another at 532 nm wavelengths, at a
           rate of 40 pulses/s. The infrared pulses are reflected from the ice
           surfaces, and the green line pulses from the atmosphere. The 
           reflected pulses are collected by an 80 cm diameter telescope. The
           precise altitude of the spacecraft is determined with the help of 
           the GPS constellation of satellites. Ice surface variations in 
           Greenland and Antarctica are important predictors of global warming.
           The URL, http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/ provides further information.
           The raw and analyzed data will be archived at the National Snow and
           Ice Data Center, affiliated with the University of Colorado and the 
           NOAA, Boulder, CO. The initial orbital parameters were period 96.4
           min, apogee 595 km, and perigee 579 km, and inclination 94 deg.

2003-001A  CORIOLIS is an American (DoD) spacecraft that was launched by
           a Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 14:19 UT on 6 January 2003.
           The 395 kg, 1,174 W, 3.0 m diameter, 6.9 m high, triaxially-
           stabilized spacecraft carried 82 kg of fuel and 340 kg of 
           instruments. The two instruments are WindSat to monitor ocean 
           surface winds, and SMEI to image Solar Mass Ejections (SME). Data 
           will be stored onboard and downlinked to dedicated ground stations
           in x-band.
           WindSat is a US Navy (NRL) multifrequency, 305 kg polarimetric
           radiometer that will monitor the surface winds over the oceans. The
           radiometer operates on a number of frequencies in the range 6.8-37.0
           GHz. Its antenna will spin about the yaw axis at 30 rpm.
           SMEI is a major payload and carries three optical cameras to
           photograph the Thompson-scattered light from ejected coronal masses
           (CMEs). The total coverage during each orbit is the hemispherical 
           sky around the Sun. Each camera has a well-baffled field of view of
           3 deg x 60 deg, with the baffle cutting out the stray light by
           10 orders of magnitude. The CCD imager provides a resolution of 0.2
           deg. The major but stable and smooth component of the image is the
           Zodiacal light which is about a thousand times stronger than the 
           superposed, structured and variable light from the CMEs. Differential
           photometry is invoked to extract the CME component. More details of
           this photometry is available in "The solar mass ejection imager",
           Advances in Space Research, Vol. 11, pp 377-381, 1991. SMEI can
           provide warnings of the Earth-directed CMEs three days in advance. 
           The data may be archived at the NSSDC, eventually.  The program 
           manager is Janet Johnson at AFRL. Email: Janet.johnson@hanscom.af.
           mil. For more details see the URL, http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/
           instrument/smei.html. The initial orbital parameters were period
           101.6 min, apogee 842 km, perigee 822 km, and inclination 98.7 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 51 (GPS 2R-8), 2003-005A.

    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.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/, or http://www.rssi.ru/SFCSIC/english.html,
maintained by the Coordinational Scientific Information Center (CSIC), Russian
Space Forces.

The latest addition to the GLONASS fleet are COSMOS 2394, COSMOS 2395, and
COSMOS 2396.

    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), 2003
------------         -----------                     ----------
2002-052B (27562)  MEPSI                               31 January
1987-073E (18332)  R/B(Aux.Mot) that launched EKRAN 16 26 January
1994-038F (23174)  R/B Aux.Mot) Proton-K               24 January
2001-043A (26929)  STARSHINE 3                         21 January
1988-044B (19190)  R/B(2) that launched MOLNIYA 3-32   19 January 
2001-015B (26746)  R/B GSLV                            18 January
1996-033B (23878)  R/B(1) Delta 2                      17 January
1985-103D (16223)  R/B(2) that launched MOLNIYA 1-66   13 January
2002-061B (27631)  R/B Long March                      09 January
2002-061A (27630)  SHENZHOU 4                          05 January

    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.)
Donald M. Sawyer is the (Acting) Director of WDC-SI, and Head of NSSDC
and WWAS, since 03 January 2003.
 
Trailblazer Corporation (Charles F. Radley) has emailed WWAS that the 
correct mass of the TRAILBLAZER (2002-058E) reported in SPX.590 is 420 kg.

   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
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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.