Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 22 December 2000 8.00am EST

During the last week, Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned. Last week, routine procedures were completed to update the on-board Ephemeris and conduct a check of the CPE warm start count (value remained at 1). Progress has been made in understanding why this counter incremented during the early safe-mode trips, and has been found to be caused by a subtle software timing behavior, rather than the hardware itself. Other items of note include a successful software patch to the On Line System (ONLS) on Dec 15 to fix a script operation problem. The intermittent problem was unmasked following the upgrade to a new Operating System on 2 November. The third Chandra NASA Research Announcement (NRA) is on track for release on December 28, and will call for observing and archive proposals with a due date of March 15. Observations of targets from this cycle are expected to begin in November 2001. The Mission planning team worked hard to develop a 2 week schedule to cover the holidays as shown below. Of note are the large number of time-constrained HETG observations, including that of the peer reviewed Target of Opportunity Cen X-3 and the Director's Discretionary Time TOO Cygnus X-1 that triggered last week.

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ZW3146                   ACIS-S/HETG  Dec 25 
Radiation Belts                       Dec 27 
Xi Uma                   ACIS-S/HETG  Dec 28 
WR140                    ACIS-S/HETG  Dec 29 
Cen X-3 (TOO)            ACIS-S/HETG 
Radiation Belts                       Dec 30 
NGC 5506                 ACIS-S/HETG  Dec 31 
N103B                    ACIS-S/HETG
Radiation Belts                       Jan 1  
Ty Pyx (HD77137)         ACIS-S/HETG
Hydra A                  ACIS-S/HETG  Jan 2  
V 0332+53                ACIS-S
Cygnus X-1 (TOO)         ACIS-S/HETG  Jan 3
Abell 4059               ACIS-S
Radiation Belts
Rosette Field (multiple) ACIS-I       Jan 4  
WHDF                     ACIS-I       Jan 5  
A1689                    ACIS-I       Jan 6  
Radiation Belts
RXJ13434+0001            ACIS-S       Jan 7  
F864X:052                ACIS-S
F864X:012                ACIS-S
AGX J134720-1129         ACIS-I

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All spacecraft subsystems continued to operate nominally.

The next report is planned for January 5 following the holiday. A Happy Holiday and New Year to everyone from the Chandra Team!

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