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Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 21 November 2003 7.30am EST

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned.

Preparations for the 2003 Leonids meteor shower passage were completed and operations proceeded accordingly last week. Steps were taken to ensure that Chandra was pointed to within 10 degrees of the anti-radiant during the passage of 4 shower streams on Nov 13, 18, 19 and 23.

On Nov 15 telemetry indicated an unexpected disturbance in the spacecraft pointing stability. Preliminary analysis indicates a change in spacecraft rate disturbances and corresponding system momentum consistent with an impact from a Leonid meteoroid. All systems continued to operate normally following the event however analysis is being performed to assess possible undetected damage.

A Chandra press release was issued on Nov 17 describing observations of the quasar GB1508+5714 that reveal a jet of high-energy particles that extends more than 100,000 light years from the supermassive black hole powering the quasar. For details see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/gb1508/ .

The observing schedule for the next week is shown below and includes a series of 30 observations of Comet Encke (a moving target) and an observation of M31 coordinated with HST.

------------------------------------------
Radiation Belts                      Nov 23
NGC 5283                ACIS-S
Comet Encke (30 obs)    ACIS-S
RX J1914.4+2456         ACIS-S       Nov 24
3C273 Jet               ACIS-S
1322+36                 ACIS-S       Nov 25
FTM 0904-0145           ACIS-S
Radiation Belts
zeta Lep                ACIS-I       Nov 26
PMN J0214-0518          ACIS-S
SDS 2357+0043           ACIS-S
M31                     ACIS-I
SDSSJ080154.24+441233.9 ACIS-S
FTM 0915+2418           ACIS-S
4C 25.40                ACIS-I       Nov 27
SU AUR                  ACIS-S/HETG
Radiation Belts                      Nov 28
SDSS 1306+0356 JET      ACIS-S       Nov 29

------------------------------------------

All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.

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