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M. Werner (JPL/Caltech), F. Low (Arizona), T. Roellig (NASA-Ames), G. Rieke, M. Rieke, E. Young, W. F. Hoffmann (Arizona), J. R. Houck (Cornell), G. G. Fazio, J. L. Hora (SAO/CfA), R. Gehrz (Minnesota), T. Soifer, G. Helou (SSC/Caltech), P. Eisenhardt, D. Gallagher, T.N. Gautier, W. Irace, C. Lawrence, A. Mainzer, L. Simmons (JPL/Caltech), M. Jura, E.L. Wright (UCLA), D. Cruikshank (NASA-Ames), J. Keene (CalTech), B. R. Brandl (Leiden), J. E. Van Cleve (Ball Aerospace)
The Space Infrared Telescope Facility [SIRTF], NASA's Great Observatory for infrared exploration, was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket on August 25, 2003. As of mid-October, 2003, SIRTF was at a distance of about 0.03 au behind the Earth in its unique Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. All spacecraft systems are operating extremely well in support of the on-going instrument checkout activities described in companion posters. In particular, the telescope has been cooled to its final operating temperature of ~5.5K, and final focus has been achieved. All three instruments have returned engineering data, focus images, and initial observational results. In addition, both the uplink planning and command system, and the downlink data capture and pipeline processing system, are operating with high efficiency. This poster will provide an up-to-date overview of the overall status and performance of SIRTF.
The research described here was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://sirtf.caltech.edu/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.