COSPAR ID: Stands for ‘Committee on Space Research Identifier’. It is an international number assigned to man-made objects launched in space. It consists of the launch year, a three-digit incrementing launch number of that year and a letter code representing one object of the mission. Only successful launches are given a COSPAR ID.
name: Official name of the object. In the case of small objects, their type names are used. A ‘plus’ sign is used when several objects are still fixed together. Information in brackets are either engine names, serials or reference.
type: Object type. In the case of small objects, it is identical to its name.
mission: Official name of the mission with alternate known mission names in brackets.
quantity: Number of objects identified. A question mark is used if no information is available and ‘scattered’ if the object was destroyed (crash, impact, explosion).
status: Last known condition of the object. For example, EOM stands for “End Of Mission” and LOS for “Loss Of Signal”. Note that spacecraft still in their systemic context (i.e. still active) are highlighted in bold.
location (Apollo tables only): Last known location of the object relative to the Lunar Module Descent Stage.
date/epoch (UTC): Date of the last known condition of the object, given in Universal Time.
| COSPAR ID | name | type | mission | quantity | status | date/epoch (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959-012C | BLOK-E (RO-5) | Booster (3rd stage) | LUNA 1 | 1 | discarded | January 2, 1959 |
| 1959-012A | Ye-1 No.4 + PENNANTS | Lunar impact probe | LUNA 1 | 1 | missed the Moon, inactive | January 5, 1959 |
Table 1: example of objects identified in the solar orbit table.
| name | type | quantity | status | location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CONTINGENCY SAMPLER HANDLE | Handtool | 1 | used as soil mechanics experiment, then discarded | kicked under LM Quad I |
| CONTINGENCY SAMPLE COLLECTION BAG RING | Ring | 1 | discarded | under LM Quad I |
Table 2: example of objects identified in the Apollo 11 table.