In addition, the Zarya web site carries information on other countries' efforts in space. The diary and the pages covering current and upcoming launches are updated constantly.

Shenzhou 9 is due to conduct docking experiments with Tiangong 1

Initial indication was that it would fly in April but December 15, Tiangong 1's controllers made a subtle adjustment that slowed its rate of orbital decay, apparently putting off the date to June.

February 17, China announced that Shenzhou 9 will be launched between June and August with a crew of three and the objective of a docking with Tiangong 1.

Full details are in Zarya's Go for Launch! Diary.

"Zarya" (Sunrise) was the radio call sign adopted by Sergei Korolyov for the Baikonur-based mission control when Yuri Gagarin went into orbit. The name has persisted, and endured as part of space history.

For many years, Zarya remained located at the Baikonur cosmodrome. In 1973, for the Soyuz 12 mission, Flight Control Centre - Центр Управления Полётами (often referred to as TsUP, the anglicised version of its acronym) was moved to Kaliningrad, a city-sized suburb of Moscow. Many satellites are tracked and controlled from there. Following break-up of the Soviet Union, Kaliningrad, which is also home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre - Центр Подготовки Космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина and other space-related industrial centres, was renamed Korolyov.

Zarya was also the name actually painted on the side of the first space station to reach orbit, even though the station's name was changed to Salyut shortly before launch. The name Zarya now adorns the first element of the International Space Station (ISS), that was launched into orbit by Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome 1998 November 20.

The secondary school that I attended in the 1960s was Kettering Grammar School in the County of Northamptonshire, England. There I met the Senior Science Master, Geoffrey Perry. Geoff introduced me to the science of radio-based satellite tracking, with particular emphasis on the Doppler shift, and how to make and record observations. The real excitement was that we were monitoring launches from the secretive Soviet Union.

From this, you will realise what still drives me today. It is the thrill of the unknown and the detective work needed to turn what used to be a few bleeps, but now more likely to be a spectrogram or a data file, into a new fact about someone or other's satellite.

You will find things that interest me..... current space events, the Soviet/Russian space programme, satellite tracking. You will also find frequency lists. They are spin-offs from my satellite tracking activities with which they go hand-in-hand. There are no mis-identifications, or erroneous entries, or gratuitous copies from elsewhere.

Notes on satellite tracking activities are added as they arise. The Diaries and "Go For Launch!" pages are updated as often as possible.