Geizer military communications satellite. The Blok DM upper stage inserted the Geizer into geosynchronous orbit at 06:20 GMT on July 5. Stationed at 80 deg E.

Years behind schedule, the Zvezda living module of the International Space Station, built and financed by Russia, finally reached orbit. Zvezda's initial orbit was 179 x 332 km x 51.6 deg. On July 14 the orbit was raised to 288 x 357 km. ISS was then in a 365 x 372 km orbit. After matching orbits with the ISS, Zvezda then became the passive docking target for the Russian-built, US-financed Zarya module already attached to the station. The Zarya/Unity stack docked with the Zvezda module at 00:45 GMT on July 26, forming the basic core of the International Space Station. A flood of NASA missions would follow to bring the station into operation.

Stationed at 119 deg W.

CHAMP was a geophysics research satellite operated by GFZ, Potsdam, to study the earth's magnetic and gravitational field.

MITA was an Italian Space Agency experimental microsatellite built by Carlo Gavazzi Space of Milano and carried the NINA particle detector and an experimental attitude control system.

Rubin was a microsatellite to measure launch vehicle parameters developed by OHB and students of the Hochschule Bremen. Rubin remained attached to the payload adapter of the Kosmos-3M final stage.

The first two European Space Agency Cluster II satellites, Samba (FM7) and Salsa (FM6) were launched into an initial 200 km / 64.8 deg circular orbit. The Fregat upper stage then burned once before ejecting the satellites into a 250 x 18072 km x 64.7 deg transfer orbit. Both satellites then used their Astrium (former MBB) S400 liquid engines in a series of four additional burns before reaching their final 16869 x 121098 km x 90.6 deg orbits. Each magnetosphere research satellite deployed four 50-meter wire antennas.

Mightysat 2.1, also known as Sindri, used a Spectrum Astro SA-200B satellite bus. The spacecraft carried a hyperspectral imager for earth imaging and spectroscopy, as well as satellite technology experiments such as advanced solar arrays. An Aerospace Corp./DARPA picosatellite experiment, consisting of two small boxes connected by a deployable tether, was deployed later. Similar picosats were deployed on the previous Minotaur launch in January 2000.

Panamsat geosynchronous communications satellite to replace PAS 5 at 58 deg W. Stationed at 58 deg W.

Progress M1-3 automatically docked with the International Space Station on August 8 at 20:13 GMT at the rear Zvezda port. The supply ship began refuelling of the station a few days later. It remained attached for offloading of its dry cargo by the STS-106 crew. It later separated from Zvezda's rear port at 0405 GMT November 1 and was deorbited over the Pacific at 0705 GMT.

Rumba and Tango were the second pair of Cluster II magnetospheric research satellites of the European Space Agency. A series of five burns of the Fregat stage took them from an initial 190 km / 64.8 degree parking orbit to their final 17,200 x 120,600 km orbits inclined 90 degrees to the equator. They then separated from the Fregat and took up operations.

Brasilsat B4 was a C-band geosynchronous communications satellite, replacing the 15-year-old Brasilsat A2 for the Brazilian communications company Embratel.

Geosynchronous communications satellite of the Egyptian company Nilesat SA. The satellite joined Nilesat 101 in providing Ku-band broadcast services. Stationed at 7 deg W.

The National Reconnaissance Office satellite was reported to be an Onyx (formerly Lacrosse) radar imaging spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin. The Titan second stage reached a 572 x 675 km x 68.0 deg orbit and separated from the payload. Amateur observers reported the payload has made two small maneuvers and by Aug 23 was in a 681 x 695 km x 68.1 deg orbit.

The third Boeing Delta III launch was financed by the company and carried a dummy payload in order to bolster customer confidence in the new launch vehicle. The second stage ignited at an altitude of 158 km and the RL-10 shut off as planned in a 157 x 1363 km x 29.5 deg parking orbit. The engine fired again until fuel depletion, to place the vehicle in a geostationary transfer orbit of 190 x 20,655 km x 27.6 deg. This was much lower than that planned (23,400 km plus or minus 3,000 km) due to the fuel temperature and atmospheric conditions on the day of launch. The DM-F3 dummy payload was a mass model of the Orion 3 HS-601 satellite launched on the second Delta 3. The 4348 kg model was a 2.0m diameter, 1.7m high cylinder with two circular end plates, painted with black and white patterns. It was to be used by US Air Force researchers as a calibration target.

Raduga-1 military communications satellite initially named Cosmos 2372 by the RVSN press service. Stationed at 50 deg E.

The Zi Yuan 2 remote sensing satellite was placed into a 474 x 493 km x 97.4 deg orbit. It may use the CBERS Sino-Brazilian bus of the earlier ZY-1.

Sirius Radio's Sirius 2 was launched into a 144 x 168 km x 64.8 deg parking orbit. The Blok DM3 stage then made two burns to deliver Sirius 2 to an elliptical 6192 x 47057 km x 63.4 deg orbit. The was to provide digital radio broadcasts to mobile users in North America. Stationed at 64 deg W.

European Telecommunications Satellite Organization's Eutelsat W1 was launched into a geostationary transfer orbit, targetted for a final 10 deg E orbital position. The box-shaped 2.5 x 5.0 m satellite has two rectangular solar panel arrays spanning 31.7m and two dishes, a European beam and a steerable beam. The payload includes 28 Ku-band transponders. Stationed at 10 deg E.

Atlantis was launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B. Solid rocket boosters RSRM-75 and external tank ET-103 were used to loft the orbiter into space. The inital orbit of 72 x 328 km x 51.6 deg was circularised by the Shuttle's OMS engines at apogee.

Atlantis docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the International Space Station at 05:51 GMT on September 10. The orbiter's small RCS engines were used to gently reboost the station's orbit several times.

Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on September 11 beginning at 04:47 GMT. They rode the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables, reaching a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when installing Zvezda's magnetometer. Total EVA duration was 6 hours 21 minutes.

During their 12-day flight, the astronauts spent a week docked to the International Space Station during which they worked as movers, cleaners, plumbers, electricians and cable installers. In all, they spent 7 days, 21 hours and 54 minutes docked to the International Space Station, outfitting the new Zvezda module for the arrival of the Expedition One crew later this fall.

The Shuttle undocked from ISS at 03:44 GMT on September 18 and made two circuits of the station each lasting half an orbit, before separating finally at 05:34 GMT. The payload bay doors were closed at 04:14 GMT on September 20 and at 06:50 GMT the OMS engines ignited for a three minute burn lowering the orbit from 374 x 386 km x 51.6 deg to 22 x 380 km x 51.6 deg. After entry interface at 07:25 GMT, the orbiter glided to a landing on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center with main gear touchdown at 07:56:48 GMT for a mission duration of 283 hr 11min. Additional Details: STS-106. References: 4 , 7 .

Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on September 11 beginning at 04:47 GMT. They rode the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables, reaching a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when installing Zvezda's magnetometer.

Astra 2B was an Astrium/Toulouse Eurostar 2000+ television broadcast satellite owned by the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene de Satellites. The satellite was to be stationed at 28.2E to replace the German DFS Kopernikus. It carried 28 Ku-band transponders. By September 19 Astra 2B was in a 31,153 x 35,762 km x 0.3 deg orbit, approaching geosynchronous altitude. Stationed at 28 deg E.

GE Americom satellite to provide cable TV distribution coverage to the USA. Equipped with 24 C-band transponders. Its dry mass was 912 kg and it carried 1023 kg of fuel at launch. The satellite is an A2100A model built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale, the first lightweight A2100 with a mass about half that of earlier A2100 satellites. By September 19 GE 7 was in a 35,832 x 35,869 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting over 146 deg W. Stationed at 137 deg W.

The NOAA polar orbit weather satellite, an Advanced Tiros N with a suite of imaging and sounding instruments. The two-stage Titan II launch vehicle, serial 23G-13, put NOAA-L into a suborbital -2500 x 800 km x 98.0 deg trajectory. The spacecraft's Thiokol Star 37XFP solid motor fired at apogee to circularize the sun-synchronous orbit at 800 km.

Reported code name Yenisey. It is speculated that this is an improved version of the Orlets satellite launched as Cosmos 2290 in 1994.

Research satellite owned and built by MegSat Space Division, part of the Gruppo Meggiorin companies in Brescia, Italy.

Saudisat 1A and 1B were developed by the Saudi Institute for Space Research at KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology), Riyadh, and carried amateur store-forward communications payloads.

Saudisat 1A and 1B were developed by the Saudi Institute for Space Research at KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology), Riyadh, and carried amateur store-forward communications payloads.

Customer: Astonautic Technology (M) SDN. BHD. Malaysia's first microsatellite built through a technology transfer programme with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd Carried multi-spectral Earth imaging CCD cameras, meteorological Earth imaging CCD camera, digital store and forward communications, cosmic-ray energy deposition experiment (CEDEX)

Experimental satellite developed by the GAUSS (Gruppo di Astrodinamica dell' Universita degli Studi 'la Sapienza') in Roma. Unisat was financed by ASI and MURST (Ministero dell'Universtia e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica). It carried NiMH batteries, a magnetometer, and a payload consisting of a space debris sensor and a camera.

Twentieth Kometa cartographic satellite, using the Yantar service module with a Vostok-type reentry vehicle. It was announced as a dual civil-military geodetic mission. After a day it raised its orbit to 211 x 285 km x 70.4 deg. Landed near Orenburg, Russia on November 14. Deorbit burn was probably around 2230 GMT; the Vostok-style sphere landed at 2253 GMT.