Tracking sites and ships

Ground sites
Communications ships
Links

Russia used to have an extensive global communications network during the Soviet era, comprising various ground tracking sites in Soviet states and a fleet of communications ships. But, as you might guess, this was greatly diminished after the collapse of the USSR and is now limited. All but one of the tracking ships were sold for scrap, the ground sites are only available when the ISS passes over Russian territory, and satellite coverage is very limited.

Russian ground sites

Above is a diagram showing the tracking range of Russian ground stations, the green blob representing the coverage. (A screenshot taken from a Flash animation of Mir’s de-orbiting from Russian Space Web).

Telemetry from the International Space Station Russian segment is transmitted to ЦУП via a network of Russian ground tracking sites. These used to cover an extensive range, but the break-up of the USSR saw some in former Soviet states close.

The Russian tracking network is known as OKIK (ОКИК, Отдельниы Командно-Измерительниы Комплекс – Otdel’niy Komandno-Izmeritel’niy Kompleks).

The signals are picked up in Moscow by the Ostankino TV tower, which relays the signals to ЦУП via fiber-optic cable.

The table below lists ground sites available to the ISS as of 20 November 2000, taken from a SpaceCalc list originally posted at Spaceflight Now.com. First contact during a pass is with the easternmost station, Petro-Pavlosk; last contact with St. Petersburg. The longest passes are around 20 minutes of an orbit.

Russian ground sites for ISS
Russian sites	Latitude/longitude	Capability
Djusail, DJS-21/25, ДЖС-21/25	45.7°N, 63.5°E	FGB/Zarya commanding, Service Module/Zvezda command/telemetry, VHF 1/2 voice, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, Soyuz/Progress command/telemetry, television
Petro-Pavlosk Kamchatskii, ППК-26/PPK-26	53.0°N, 158.7°E	Zarya telemetry, Zvezda command/telemetry, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, Soyuz/Progress command/telemetry
Barnaul, БРН-27/BRN-27	53.3°N, 83.4°E	Zarya/Zvezda telemetry, Zvezda VHF-1/2 voice, state vector determination, television
St. Petersburg, СПБ-29/SPB-29	60.0°N, 30.0°E	Zarya/Zvezda telemetry, Zvezda VHF-2 voice, television
Kolpashevo, КЛП-32/KLP-32	58.2°N, 82.9°E	Zarya command/telemetry, Zvezda telemetry/VHF-2 voice, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, Soyuz/Progress command/telemetry
Ulan-Ude, УЛД-33/ULD-33	51.8°N, 107.6°E	Zarya command/telemetry, Zvezda command/telemetry, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, Soyuz/Progress command/telemetry
Shelkovo, ШК-34/ShK-24	55.7°N, 37.6°E	Zarya command/telemetry, Zvezda commanding, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, Soyuz/Progress command/telemetry
Ussurisk, УСК-35/USK-35	43.9°N, 131.6°E	Zarya command/telemetry, Zvezda commanding, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, Soyuz/Progress command/telemetry
Yeniseisk, С-24/S-24	58.0°N, 92.0°E	Zvezda command/telemetry, Zarya telemetry, Soyuz VHF-2 voice, television

Communications ships

Model of communications ship from Russia in Space book.

In Soviet times there used to be a fleet of communications ships (comships) which greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not over the USSR. Twelve ships were constructed (along with two for the Soviet Navy), but most – like too much else – were sold off and scrapped after the collapse of the USSR. The short-sighted stupidity of this is depressing to contemplate.

This post from Chris Van Den Berg’s Mir News describes the state of the tracking fleet in 1994:

1994 July 25 – Mir News 221: Russian spaceflight tracking ships.

Until 1992 the fleet of tracking ships consisted of ten ships. These ships formed a part of the infrastructure of control centres and measurement points for Soviet spaceflight operations. In this case the word “operations” covers a wide variety for the assistance of the manned spaceflight program was only a small part of their duties.

The role of the ships, as far as manned spaceflight was concerned, sharply deteriorated after the beginning of the use of geostationary satellites for communications between the Salyut 7 and the Mir space stations. The TDRS system used by the Russians did not always work satisfactorily and so all experts involved in Russian spaceflight expected that the “ships” would remain operational at least until 2000. Already in 1990 there circulated rumours about the a gradual withdrawal of that fleet, but nobody dared to take the responsibility.

However the economical problems in the last year of the S.U. forced the Russians to withdraw most of the ships from service and as of January 1st 1992 the ships in the Atlantic apart from some modest exceptions ceased to assist during Mir-operations. Sometimes a ship was operational in the Atlantic to assist space-operations for other objects and organizations and now and then had to be stand-by during Mir-operations (launches of Progresses, Soyuzes, dockings, return operations, EVA’s a.s.o.), but always on a secondary basis.

For the last half year the Kosmonavt Pavel Belyayev operated from a position west of Africa and even played an important role during the almost fatal flight of Soyuz TM-17 on 14.01.94. After some bumps of the Soyuz TM-17 into the Mir-station the communications via the Altair (Cosmos-2054) ceased and this caused great concern at TsUP. KPB was the first to pick up radio traffic from the Soyuz TM-17 and thus shortened the awful uncertainty phase at TsUP by 10 minutes.

In the past the ships relayed traffic between Mir and TsUP via Molniya satellites during the first part of Mir’s footprint for our position. Nowadays the traffic between Mir and TsUP only begins at TCA for our position.

The fate of the fleet: the ships belonged to the Soviet (now Russian) Academy of Sciences. The maritime part fell under the responsibility of the Baltic- and Black sea shipping. The ships which have home ports in the Ukraine (the Kosmonavt Yurii Gagarin and the Akademik Sergei Korolyov) now belong to that country and so their role in spaceflight fully ceased. The ships made some trips for tourists, but that was not successful. Both ships have been used to evacuate Russian military personnel and their families from Cuba to St. Petersburg. From there they returned to their Ukrainian ports. The Ukraine does not know what to do with the ships and tried to sell them to the Russians. The Russians were not interested: they still have 4 ships for the Western Hemisphere and a 5th one is under construction.

Spaceflight needs over the Pacific are covered by 2 ships of the Russian Navy, the Marshal Nedelin and the Marshal Krylov. The Odessa-based Kosmonavt Vladimir Komarov already before the independence of the Ukraine was transferred to Leningrad to be refurbished for other purposes: ecological expeditions in the Baltic and the North Atlantic. Thus far this plan did not work: the attempts to use the ship for that purposes on a commercial base did not have success due to the lack of customers.

So in St. Petersburg we have 4 ships: the Kosmonavt Pavel Belyayev, the Kosmonavt Vladislav Volkov, the Kosmonavt Viktor Patsayev and the Kosmonavt Georgii Dobrovolskii. They are waiting for an assignment. Possibly one of them will be used in the Atlantic west of Africa in October and November 1994 to assist during the launch and docking of Soyuz TM-20 (resp. 3 and 5.10.94) and the return flight of the Soyuz TM-19 on 3.11.94.

A new ship, the Akademik Nikolai Pilyugin, has already been launched and has to be fitted. Thus far it is not known whether this new ship will influence the fate of 1 or more ships of the 4 in St. Peterburg.

After the last expedition the Belyayev several times had contact with the crew of the Mir complex. From this traffic I could derive the indication that the ship planned to visit Antwerp in Belgium. This enabled me to go on board and I had a long and interesting conversation with the chief of the expedition, Nikolay Burov and the captain Sivtsov. In spite of the enormous economical difficulties of their country their hospitality towards me was 100%.

(This Mir report is derived from the reports in Dutch 221 and 222. So the next Mir report in English will be MirNEWS.223)

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

(Via Mir EO-16, Encyclopedia Astronautica)

From Chris van den Berg’s ISS COM 036 on 12 June 2003 – down to two ships now:

On 7.06.03 it seemed as if good old times came back. During 2 passes there were voice communications via 143.625 mc between the ISS and the tracking ship Kosmonavt Viktor Patsayev. The signal from KVP to ISS was very strong, KVP had reception problems. (I regretted it very much that I was not on board KVP to help the operator adjusting his receiver and/or correctly aiming his reception antenna). The man on board KVP stated that they had still 2 ships, i.e. this one and the Kosmonavt Georgii Dobrovolksiy.

Expedition 11 did a comm test with the Viktor Patsaev in 2005 during their stay on the ISS:

On 20 May 2005 (GMT 140) the Commander successfully completed a Very High Frequency (VHF) 2 test via Space-to-Ground (S/G) 1, by contacting a research vessel, the Kosmonaut Viktor Patsaev, docked at the port of Kaliningrad. The purpose of this test was to determine if this ship can serve as a potential “ground station” for communication with ISS. The crew reported that nominal communication was established.

In December 2005 the Cosmonaut Georgii Dobrovol’skii was sold at auction for 24.6 million rubles, bought by the firm Natalia Shipping Ltd. The funds that were obtained with the sale of the vessel were to be included in the Russian federal budget

According to the Launch and Research Facilities page at Go Taikonauts!, China has 4 tracking ships (Yuan Wang 1-4).

The information in the table below is from Russia in Space – The Failed Frontier?, by Brian Harvey. Any more information would be appreciated!

Kosmonavt: Космонавт; Cosmonaut
Akademik: Академик; Academican

Russian tracking and communications ships
Type & purpose	Name	Notes
Large tracking ships (commissioned for the Moon effort)	Kosmonavt Vladimir Komarov «Космонавт Владимир Комаров»	17 000 tonnes. Sold; briefly became an environmental monitoring ship in the Gulf of Finland. Eventually scrapped.
	Kosmonavt Yurii Gagarin «Космонавт Юрий Гагарин»	45 000 tonnes. Scrapped.
	Akademik Sergei Korolev «Академик Сергей Королев»	21 250 tonnes. Scrapped.
	Akademik Nikolai Pilyugin «Академик Николай Пилюгин»	Laid down in Leningrad in April 1988. Scrapped.
Smaller commissioned comships	Kosmonavt Pavel Belyayev «Космонавт Павел Беляев»	Sold after 1992
	Kosmonavt Georgi Dobrovolskii «Космонавт Георгий Доброволский»	Sold to a private shipping company in December 2005
	Kosmonavt Viktor Patsaye «Космонавт Виктор Патсаев»	Docked at Kaliningrad’s World Ocean Museum as a floating exhibit. Still utilized by TsUP.
	Akademik Vladislav Volkov, «Академик Владислав Волков».	Sold
Smaller converted comships	Borovichi «Боровичи»	Sold after 1992
	Kegostrov «Кегостров»	Sold after 1992
	Morzhovets «Моржовец»	Sold after 1992
	Nevel «Невел»	Sold after 1992
Soviet Navy commissioned comships (for use with naval reconnaissance satellites)	Marshal Nedelin «Маршал Неделин»	Still in use?
	Marshal Krylov «Маршал Крйлов»	Still in use?

Tracking sites and ships

Russian ground sites

Communications ships

1994 July 25 – Mir News 221: Russian spaceflight tracking ships.

Links