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The International Designator, also known as COSPAR designation, and in the United States as NSSDC ID, is an international naming convention for satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s. It consists of the launch year, a 3-digit incrementing launch number of that year and up to a 3-letter code representing the sequential id of a piece in a launch.

For example, is Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
's launch vehicle
Launch vehicle

In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure....
 and is the actual Sputnik 1 satellite.






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The International Designator, also known as COSPAR designation, and in the United States as NSSDC ID, is an international naming convention for satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s. It consists of the launch year, a 3-digit incrementing launch number of that year and up to a 3-letter code representing the sequential id of a piece in a launch.

For example, is Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
's launch vehicle
Launch vehicle

In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure....
 and is the actual Sputnik 1 satellite. The number reveals that it was launched in 1957 and that it was the first launch made that year. Another example is , the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope is a Space observatory that was carried into Low Earth orbit STS-31 in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble....
, which was the 37th known successful launch world wide in 1990. is the Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery

Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the three currently operational Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States....
 on mission STS-31
STS-31

STS-31 was the thirty-fifth mission of the American Space Shuttle program, which launched the Hubble Space Telescope astronomical observatory into LEO....
, which was to carry the Hubble telescope into space.

Launch failures are not given standard NSSDC IDs. They are instead cataloged with "arbitrary" designations, for example for the satellite Vanguard
Vanguard rocket

The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S....
 SLV 1.

The designation system has been generally known as the COSPAR
COSPAR

The Committee on Space Research was established by the International Council for Science in 1958.Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in outer space on an international level, with emphasis on the free exchange of results, information, and opinions, and providing a forum, open to all scientists, for the discus...
 system, after a true international organization. This group subsumed the first designation system, devised at Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 in 1958. And that system used minuscule letters of the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BCE....
 to designate artificial satellites. For example, Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
 was designated 1957a. In 1963, the system was changed to use numerals instead, but its retroactive application for ease of computerized reference was not immediate. For example, the quarterly publication TRW
TRW

TRW Incorporated was an American corporation involved in a number of businesses, mostly defense industry-related, but including automotive industry, aerospace and credit reporting....
 Space Log of 1969 had satellites orbited before 1963 listed by Greek letters and those during and after by numerals.

The catalog is administered in the United States by the National Space Science Data Center
National Space Science Data Center

The National Space Science Data Center is a department in NASA's Heliophysics Division. It was created to archive NASA space science mission data....
 (NSSDC), part of NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
.

See also

  • Satellite Catalog Number
    Satellite Catalog Number

    The Satellite Catalog Number is a sequential 5-digit number assigned by USSPACECOM to all Earth orbiting satellites in order of identification....


External links

  • (no longer functioning by change of US Air Force policy)
  • with commentary by Jonathan McDowell of Jonathan's Space Report
    Jonathan's Space Report

    Jonathan's Space Report is a newsletter about the space age. It is written by Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astrophysicist....