Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 16 May 2003 8.00am EDT

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned. The IRU-1 gyro-1 current remained at ~150mA (its yellow limit) with continued noisy behavior. Of note last week was the approval by the Flight Director Board of the transition to DSS-54 following its upgrade to DSN's next generation NSP (Network Simplification Project) equipment. All upgraded stations have now been approved for operational use and we thank DSN for support and cooperation during the transition period. A Chandra image release of the compact group of galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet was made on May 8. The Chandra image when combined with the the optical provides an excellent example of the tumultuous dynamics of a compact group. For details see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/stephan/index.html. The observing schedule for next week is shown below and includes two observations of Mrk 279 coordinated with HST and FUSE.

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M87                    ACIS-S       May 18
TXS 1259+468           ACIS-S
Mrk 279                HRC-S/LETG
HR 7547                HRC-I        May 19
Radiation Belts
Mrk 279                HRC-S/LETG   May 20
G21.5-0.9 (2 obs)      ACIS-I
SDSS J001115+144601    ACIS-S
Fornax Cluster (2 obs) ACIS-I
Radiation Belts                     May 21
A3562                  ACIS-I       May 22
NGC 3256               ACIS-S
MH 2136-428            ACIS-S       May 23
Fornax Cluster (2 obs) ACIS-I
Radiation Belts                     May 24
PSR J1016-5857         ACIS-S       May 25
PKS0537-28_1           ACIS-I

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All spacecraft subsystems, with the exception of the MUPS thruster A-1 under investigation, continued to operate nominally.

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