The United Nations Registry of Space Objects

Key to Tables

 
Table A contains the following index information:
 
(1) State of Registry. Note that the satellite may be owned by a different
    State. In particular, a number of satellites launched by the United States
    for the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries were registered by the
    United States rather than by the country which built and operated the
    payload. Some of these cases are noted in the Editorial Notes.
 
    States in the Registry: 
 
    US      United States of America
    USSR    Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Republik (Union of Soviet
            Socialist Republics) 
    ITALY   Italia (Italy)
    FRANCE  France
    AUS     Australia
    JAPAN   Nippon (Japan)
    UK      United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
    CANADA  Canada
    BRD     Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany)
    INDIA   India
    CSSR    Ceskoslovensko (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic)
    CSFR    Ceskoslovensko (Czechoslovak Federal Republic)
    CZECH   Czech Republic
    ESA     European Space Agency
    ISRAEL  Israel
    SWEDEN  Sverige (Sweden)
    MEXICO  The United Mexican States
    CHINA   People's Republic of China
    RF      Russian Federation
    BRAS    Brasil (Brazil)
    UKR     Ukraine
    SPAIN   Spain
    KOR     Republic of Korea (South Korea)
    ARG     Argentina
    LUX     Luxembourg
    EUMET   European Organization for the Exploitation of 
            Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
    CHILE   Chile                                            342
    PAK     Pakistan
    UAE     United Arab Emirates
    MALAY   Malaysia
    ALG     Algeria
    GREECE  Greece
    EGYPT   Egypt
    TURKEY  Turkey
    PHIL    The Phillipines
    NIGERIA  Nigeria
    VENEZ   Venezuela
    THAI    Thailand

    In addition, objects launched by the following states:
    NED     Netherlands
    INDNA   Indonesia
    ARAB    Saudi Arabia (and The Arab League)
    PORT    Portugal
    THAI    Thailand
    NOR     Norway
    SING    Singapore
    ROC     Republic of China, Taiwan
    RSA     South Africa
    DEN     Denmark
    MAROC   Morocco    
    COLOM   Colombia
    MAUR    Mauritius
    VIET    Vietnam

    are included in the table. They were not registered with the UN. Some of the
    satellites registered by France were the property of the European Space
    Research Organization (ESRO) or of ESA.

 
(2) Number of object launched by State of Registry, for older satellites only.
    For USSR satellites, this
    number is the registration serial number provided to the United Nations,
    except for a few cases ( [U1], [U2], etc.) of satellites which were launched
    secretly by the USSR without registration. For all other satellites, the
    number is an unofficial serial number assigned by the editor. Serial numbers
    in square parentheses indicate that the object was not registered with the
    United Nations. For objects registered by France for ESRO, serials E1, E2,
    etc. are used.

    This column is no longer being updated.
 
(3) International designation (originally 'Harvard number', also known as COSPAR
    designation). This designation is the official registration identification
    for United States satellites. For satellites
    launched by other states which did not provide this information,
    or for US satellites not registered with the UN, the
    designation has been taken from the COSPAR Bulletin.
    The original Harvard number system (COSPAR Bulletin, No. 1) gave the year of
    launch, a Greek letter for the order of launch within the year, and a serial
    number for objects within a single launch. Thus, 1961 Delta 2 is the second
    object from the fourth launch of 1961. In 1963 the system was changed to
    replace the Greek letters with numbers and the serial numbers with
    alphabetic suffixes. The suffixes ran from A to Z, then from AA to AZ, BA to
    BZ, etc., except that the letters I and O are never used (to avoid confusion
    with 1 and 0). Thus, 1965-82AB is the 26th object from the 82nd launch of
    1965.
 
 
(4) Name of satellite. The name is as given in the UN registration document,
    except for cases in square parentheses which are taken from the COSPAR
    Bulletin.
 
(5) Date of launch. The date is nominally the Universal Time, Gregorian calendar
    date and is taken from the registration documents for all registered
    objects.
 
(6) Document in which the satellite was registered.
 
(7) For satellites prior to 1994, issue of the COSPAR Bulletin in which the satellite may be found in the
     listing of the Survey of Satellites and Space Probes. Note that no such
     listing was provided in 1963, and that secondary payloads are often not
     included in the COSPAR Bulletin listing. International designations for
     such satellites have been taken from the NASA Satellite Situation Report or
     the RAE Tables in the few cases where this was necessary.

 
(8) Orbital period in minutes, where given.
 
(9) Perigee height in km, where given
 
(10) Apogee height in km, where given.
 
(11) Inclination to the Earth's equator in degrees, where given.
 
(12) Supplementary note, giving description of purpose of satellite. The entry in
     this column is a reference to the table of Notes. The given note contains
     the text used to describe the satellite in the registration document. These
     descriptions are very general and the same text is often used repeatedly
     for different satellites.
 
(13) Further supplementary notes. The entry in this column refers to the table of
      Notes.
 
(14) Editorial notes. The entry in this column refers to the table of Editorial
     Notes which include comments on errors in the registration documents, or
     information about objects which were not registered with the United
     Nations.