Past News Items

GLONASS-125 has replaced GLONASS-120 in the ILRS priority list on May 04, 2011.
The 1st quarter report card has been published.
The second PROBA-2 tracking campaign was completed on 06-Feb-2011.
Professor Yang Fumin, the former vice director of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, passed away on Wednesday, February 9, 2011. Yang was a long-time contributor to the ILRS and SLR in general; he was one of the WPLTN representatives to the ILRS Governing Board. The entire SLR community will miss Yang and his many contributions to the field.
On November 11, 2010 our colleague Wolfgang Seemueller passed away after a long illness. Wolfgang was the head of the EUROLAS Data Center (EDC) at DGFI as well as the Data Center Representative on the ILRS Governing Board. He also was also the head of the Regional Network Associate Analysis Center for SIRGAS (RNAAC-SIR). We will greatly miss Wolfgang and his contributions to the scientific community.
The first 3-way simultaneous laser ranging to LRO occurred Monday November 1, 2010. NGSLR, MLRS, and Monument Peak all successfully ranged to LRO during the same hour period. Simultaneous data allows more detailed comparison of the station biases, potentially permits a geometric solution of the spacecraft position, and provides a demonstration of what is possible for future planetary tracking using lasers.
The CHAMP satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 20, 2010.
QZS-1 was successfully launched on September 11, 2010 at 08:17:00 p.m. (JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.
ICESat re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on August 30 at 05:00 a.m. EDT.
JAXA has informed the ILRS that laser tracking of ETS-8 is no longer required.
The ANDE Castor spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on August 18, 2010. The last radar contact was 18-Aug-2010 at 13:54 by the Cobra Dane site.
A GIOVE-B campaign (July 12-August 13, 2010) has been requested by ESA for orbit determination studies.
TanDEM-X was launched from Baikonur Russa on June 21, 2010 at 02:14 GMT.
STSAT-2B launch occurred on June 10, 2010 at 08:01 GMT; the satellite was lost due to a rocket failure.
The Pulkovo EOP and Reference Systems Analysis Center (PERSAC) has been accepted as an ILRS Associate Analysis Center.
The TIGO (Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory) SLR system, located in Concepcion Chile, is fully operational again after the devastating earthquake on February 27, 2010. The system has been continually tracking laser ranging targets since April 29 after repositioning the telescope and optical components within the laser container. The system is operated by the Bundesamt fuer Kartographie und Geodaesie (BKG) in cooperation with Chilean university partners.
The publication of the ILRS 2007-2008 Report has been completed. Interested parties who would like to receive a copy can contact the ILRS Central Bureau. The document is also available in PDF form from the ILRS website.
We have recently been notified that the numbering of the GLONASS satellites launched on March 02, 2010 was incorrectly posted on the ILRS website. This error has caused problems in prediction files, tracking, and data records. The NORAD and COSPAR IDs for GLONASS-120 and -121 where incorrect; the proper values are now available. CODE will begin providing prediction files using the correct numbering today; older data will be corrected in the next day or two and will be replaced in the archives shortly thereafter. Stations should update their station files as soon as possible with the appropriate numbers so that all new GLONASS-120 tracking data will be accounted for correctly. We regret the problems this confusion has caused.
GLONASS-120 replaced GLONASS-109 in the tracking list on April 06, 2010.
The ANDE Pollox spacecraft has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. The last observation of the ANDE Pollux spacecraft was on 28-Mar-2010 at 22:55 from the Beale Phased Array (west coast of CONUS).
A PROBA-2 tracking campaign will be held 21-Mar-2010 through 03-Apr-2010.
The ILRS Governing Board has approved tracking of SARAL.
PRN35 (GPS-35) has been reactivated; the satellite has been added to the ILRS priority list.
A spreadsheet summarizing ILRS station site logs is now available.
Graham Appleby was elected chair of the ILRS Governing Board in December 2009.
The ILRS Governing Board has approved tracking of KOMPSAT-5.
Lunar Laser Ranging has resumed at the upgraded Grasse station. Developments were supported by several agencies including OCA, CNES, and the French national institute of the universe science.
The ILRS Governing Board has approved tracking of RadioAstron and CryoSat-2.
PROBA-2 was launched on November 02, 2009; SLR tracking will commence in early 2010.
ESA and the Galileo project have requested a special GIOVE-A tracking campaign for November 06-26, 2009 to characterise the nature of the so-called Y-bias.
Our colleague Werner Gurtner passed away on Saturday, October 24, 2009 after a long illness. Werner was the chair of the ILRS Governing Board since 2002 and one of the founding members of the IGS. He was responsible for the development of the SLR station at Zimmerwald. Werner will be greatly missed by the global geodetic community.
An executive summary and full workshop report for the Fall 2009 ILRS Technical Workshop "SLR Tracking of GNSS Constellations" is now available.
The SLR global performance report card for the 3rd quarter of 2009 has been published.
STSAT-2A was launched on August 25, 2009; unfortunately, the satellite was lost due to a separation failure of fairing protecting the satellite.
ANDE was successfully deployed from the Space Shuttle on July 30, 2009.
The first two successful SLR passes between a terrestrial ground station and a spacecraft orbiting the Moon were obtained on July 1, and July 2, 2009 between the NGSLR station at Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The first pass was obtained between 22:11 and approximately 23:10 UTC on July 1, 2009. LRO is in a low-altitude, near-polar commissioning orbit around the Moon. All spacecraft systems are being carefully and systematically checked. The Lunar Ranging data to LRO are being analyzed and validated and the data flow and system operations for operational ranging to LRO are being tested. The LR system on LRO will supplement the S Band (radio) tracking system for purposes of precision orbit determination and gravity field improvement.
At the request of our Russian colleagues, GLONASS-115 replaces GLONASS-99 in the satellite tracking roster.
ESA's gravity mission GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) launched on March 17, 2009. Learn more about GOCE mission, including SLR's contribution to the mission through a demonstration of SLR at Herstmonceux.
A Web site for the presentations and proceedings from the 16th International Laser Ranging Workshop is now available.