Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 17 January 2003 8.30am EST

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned. A real-time procedure was completed on 12 Jan to perform a calibration of the Momentum Unloading Propulsion System (MUPS) thrusters. Spacecraft rate and thruster valve data indicated nominal performance for the A-1 thruster (and all others) and the procedure was followed by a manual unload of momentum without the use of A-1. A real-time procedure was completed on 15 Jan to unload momentum using the A-1 thruster and a performance decrease similar to that seen on 22 Dec was observed. The cause of the anomalous A-1 performance is being investigated. At present, through careful scheduling and momentum management, the science program is not being impacted. Of note last week was the conduct on Jan 14 of the 2003 Chandra Fellows Peer Review. The observing schedule for next week is shown below and includes the last in a series of long observations of the Orion Nebula.

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Radiation Belts                      Jan 20
Orion Nebula Cluster    ACIS-I       Jan 21
MACSJ0035.4-2015        ACIS-I
A2626                   ACIS-S       Jan 22
MACSJ2228.5+2036        ACIS-I
First J070625+390151    ACIS-S
SDSS083946.22+511202.8  ACIS-S
First J110223+223920    ACIS-S
Radiation Belts                      Jan 23
MACSJ1115.8+0129        ACIS-I
HZ43                    HRC-I/LETG
M 2-9                   ACIS-S       Jan 24
A1367 NW                ACIS-S
NGC 3310                ACIS-S
2MASS102127+631130      ACIS-S       Jan 25
PC 0947+5628            ACIS-S
A773                    ACIS-I       Jan 25
Radiation Belts
RX J193458.1+335301     ACIS-S       Jan 26
RX J2020.3+4026         ACIS-S

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All spacecraft subsystems, with the exception of MUPS thruster A-1 as noted above, continued to operate nominally.

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