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The ASCA Mission
ASCA (formerly named Astro-D) was Japan's fourth cosmic X-ray astronomy mission, and the second for which the United States provided part of the scientific payload. The satellite was successfully launched on February 20, 1993. The mission operated successfully for over 7 years until attitude control was lost on July 14, 2000 during a geomagnetic storm, after which no scientific observations were performed. ASCA reentered the atmosphere on March 2, 2001 after more than 8 years in orbit.
The U.S. ASCA Guest Observer Facility (GOF), located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was part of the then Office of General Investigator Programs (OGIP) (now called the HEASARC Office) in the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD).
The primary responsibility of the U.S. ASCA GOF was to enable U.S. astronomers to make the best use of the ASCA mission, in close collaboration with the Japanese ASCA team.
ASCA Reentry: ASCA re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on March 2, 2001
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This file was last modified on Tuesday, 26-Oct-2021 15:56:42 EDT
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ASCA Project Scientist: Dr. Nicholas E. White
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