X-ray satellite
An X-ray satellite is an artificial earth satellite that carries out astronomical observations in the X-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum , between about 0.1 and 500 keV photon energy. Since the absorption of X-rays in the earth's atmosphere prevents observations from the ground, X-ray satellites are the most important tool in X-ray astronomy . Gamma astronomy joins higher energies .
List of X-ray and gamma satellites
- VELA 1963–1985
- OSO-1 1962-1963
- OSO-2 1965-1966
- OSO-3 1967-1969
- OSO-4 1967-1971
- OSO-5 1969-1975
- OSO-6 1969-1972
- Uhuru (SAS-1) 1970-1974
- OSO-7 1971-1974
- SAS-2 1972-1973
- ANS 1974-1977
- Ariel V 1974-1980
- COS-B 1975-1982
- SAS-3 1975-1979
- OSO-8 1975-1988
- CORSA-A 1976, bust
- HEAO-1 1977-1979
- HEAO-2 , also called Einstein Observatory, 1978–1981
- HEAO-3 1979-1981
- Hakuchō (CORSA-B) 1979–1985
- Ariel VI 1979-1982, technical problems
- Hinotori (ASTRO-A) 1981-1991
- EXOSAT 1983-1986
- Tenma (ASTRO-B) 1983-1985
- Ginga (ASTRO-C) 1987-1991
- GARNET 1989-1998
- ROSAT 1990-1999
- BBXRT 1990
- Compton Gamma Ray Observatory 1991-2000
- Yohkoh Solar Observatory (SOLAR-A) 1991-2001
- Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics ASCA (ASTRO-D) 1993-2000
- ALEXIS 1993-2005
- DXS 1993
- RXTE since 1995
- HETE 1996, failure
- BeppoSAX 1996-2002
- XMM-Newton since 1999
- ABRIXAS 1999, failure
- CHANDRA since 1999
- ASTRO-E 2000, bust
- HETE-2 since 2000
- INTEGRAL since 2002
- RHESSI since 2002
- Swift since 2004
- ASTRO-E2 (Suzaku) since 2005
- AGILE since 2007
- Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) since 2008
- NuSTAR since 2012
- ASTROSAT since 2015
- Hitomi (ASTRO-H) 2016
- Max Valier Sat since 2017
- Spektr-RG / eROSITA since 2019
Work in progress / planned X-ray and gamma satellites
- Gecam 2020 (China)
- IXPE 2021 (USA)
- XRism 2021 (Japan, USA)
- SVOM 2021 (China, France)
- Einstein sample 2022 (China)
Discontinued studies
- X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy
- International X-ray Observatory, jointly planned mission by NASA, ESA and JAXA
- Simbol-X Italian-French study
- GEMS