EXOSAT

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EXOSAT
EXOSAT
Type: Research satellite
Operator: European space agencyESA ESA
COSPAR-ID : 1983-051A
Mission dates
Dimensions: 510 kg
Size: 3.2 x 2.1 m
Begin: May 26, 1983
Starting place: Vandenberg AFB , SLC-2W
Launcher: Delta 3914
Status: burned up
Orbit data
Rotation time : 90.6 h
Orbit inclination : 72.5 °
Apogee height :  191,510 km
Perigee height :  583 km

EXOSAT ( E uropean X -Ray O bservatory Sat ellite ) was the first X-ray - Observatory of the European Space Agency ESA . The main contractor was the German company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB).

EXOSAT was supposed to be the first science satellite to be launched with the then new European rocket Ariane 1 . However, on May 26, 1983, it started with a Delta 3914 rocket from the Vandenberg space station in the USA into a highly eccentric earth orbit between 347 km and 191,709 km altitude and 72.5 ° equatorial inclination. The circulation time was 90.6 hours. EXOSAT was in operation until the position control failed on April 9, 1986 and re-entered the earth's atmosphere on May 6, 1986, where it burned up.

EXOSAT had three identically aligned instruments for the energy ranges 0.05–2.5  keV , 2–20 keV and 1–50 keV. The special orbit made long, uninterrupted observations of changing objects possible. Coverings of X-ray sources by the moon were used to localize them more precisely and to be able to determine their structure better than in the telescope resolution.

EXOSAT discovered quasi-periodic fluctuations in brightness in X-ray binary stars and made a total of 1,780 observations of X-ray sources such as active galactic nuclei , the coronae of stars, white dwarfs , variable stars , galaxy clusters and supernova remnants .

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