Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 12:50:17 -0400
From: NASA HQ Public Affairs Office
To: press-release-com@venus.hq.nasa.gov
Subject: International Ultraviolet Explorer Prepared to Receive its Final
Command
Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC September 30, 1996
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Tammy Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-5566)
RELEASE: 96-194
INTERNATIONAL ULTRAVIOLET EXPLORER PREPARED TO RECEIVE ITS FINAL COMMAND
After nearly 19 years of operation, NASA's International
Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) spacecraft will receive its final
"shutdown" -- marking the end of one of the longest and most
productive missions in the history of space science.
"The decision to shut down a hardy veteran like IUE was
not an easy one," said Dr. Wesley Huntress, Associate
Administrator for Space Science at NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC. "However, we have to balance our available
budgetary resources with an increasing number of productive
space science missions that require operational support. IUE
has been incredibly productive over its long lifetime."
Originally designed for a three-year life, the
observatory and its spectrographic instruments enable studies
of astronomical and cosmic phenomena that emit ultraviolet
radiation, which is blocked from ground-based telescopes by
Earth's atmosphere. IUE has been controlled from NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, for the past two decades.
"IUE was a pioneering research spacecraft for observing
the ultraviolet spectrum," said Dr. Yoji Kondo, IUE project
scientist at Goddard. "Many of the scientists that use the
Hubble Space Telescope and other space-based observatories
today began by studying the ultraviolet with IUE."
Some of IUE's most recent research includes observations
of Comet Hyakutake during March 1996. Scientists using IUE
tracked and observed the nucleus of Comet Hyakutake for five
days, obtaining exposures of up to five hours in duration
that provided new insights into the chemical processes taking
place inside the comet. The comet was found to be ejecting
ten tons of water every second as it passed near the Sun.
Astronomers also were able to confirm that the "break up"
event of March 24 involved only a small piece of the comet,
Kondo said.
IUE has contributed to many branches of astronomical
research over the years, ranging from studies of objects in
the Solar System to observations of distant galaxies. This
includes the historic first identification of the star that
exploded and became known as Supernova 1987A.
Goddard has operated the IUE in three-way collaboration
with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Particle Physics
and Astronomy Research Council (formerly the British Science
Engineering and Research Council) of the United Kingdom since
the spacecraft's launch on Jan. 26, 1978. IUE has been
operated in a real-time mode similar to ground-based
observatories, and was the only geosynchronous scientific
satellite observatory capable of working continuously 24
hours per day.
More than 2,000 guest observers from all corners of the
world, including astronomers from North and South America,
Europe, China, India, Russia, Africa, and Australia, have
used the observatory at Goddard and through the ESA control
site in Spain. Approximately 3,500 scientific articles based
on IUE observations have been published in peer-reviewed
journals -- the largest number for any satellite observatory
thus far. In addition, more than 500 doctoral students have
used IUE results in their dissertations, clearly
demonstrating the importance of the IUE project to the
education of the next generation of astrophysicists.
"IUE has contributed significantly to astronomical
science over the years. Yet its ultimate legacy will be the
final data archive, which will be completed by the end of
1997," Kondo said. "Using newly developed software,
additional scientific information will be gleaned from more
than 100,000 astronomical observations that are currently
being reprocessed. This data archive will be stored for
future reference and will remain an important resource for
astrophysical studies for many years to come."
As part of NASA's continuing budget reduction efforts,
day-to-day science control of the IUE was fully transferred
to ESA on Oct. 1, 1995, thus combining the NASA and ESA IUE
science programs, although Goddard maintained responsibility
for the daily operational maintenance of the spacecraft. It
was jointly decided by NASA and ESA that final shutdown would
occur on Sept. 30, 1996.
A past winner of the U.S. Presidential Award for Design
Excellence, IUE has been used as a central facility in many
multiwavelength observations, an important modern approach to
astrophysical research. The spacecraft has been used in
conjunction with ground-based telescopes and other space
observatories, including the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
and the Hubble Space Telescope.
More information on IUE and other related astrophysics
missions is available on the Internet at URL:
http://iuewww.gsfc.nasa.gov/iue/iue_homepage.html
-end-
Editor's note: A more detailed list of IUE scientific
highlights is available from the NASA Goddard Public Affairs
Office at 301/286-8955.
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