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Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 30 March 2012 9.00am EDT

During the last week the observing schedule was replanned to incorporate and observation of GRB120320A, which was accepted as a Target of Opportunity on Mar 22. Planned observations of SDSS J1148+2313, SDSS J1034+1912, and NGC 3588 were replaced by the TOO and will be rescheduled in future weeks.

Chandra passed through the fourth, fifth, and sixth eclipses of the season on Mar 24, 26, and 29 respectively, with nominal power and thermal performance.

A flight software patch was uplinked on Mar 28 to update the stored-command sequence that is used to raise the HRC-S microchannel-plate high voltage to the operational level. The update increases the magnitude of the voltage in order to recover a slight loss in X-ray detection efficiency observed over the twelve years of operation. Additional real-time procedures were executed on Mar 28-30 to dump OBC-A memory as a follow-up to the flight software patch. The dump will be used to update the baseline memory image maintained on the ground. A real-time procedure was executed on Mar 29 to update the on-board ephemeris.

A Chandra image release was issued on Mar 29 describing results from observations of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). A new study suggests the massive star that became the Cas A supernova remnant may have turned inside out as it exploded. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2012/casa/

The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below and includes an observation of SN 2011ja, which was accepted as a Director's Discretionary Time TOO on Mar 13, and observation of 55 Cnc, which was accepted as a Director's Discretionary Time TOO on Feb 23 and is coordinated with HST, and an observation of RXJ1622.7-2325_P2 coordinated with OVRO/CARMA.



------------------------------------------
 A1795                  ACIS-I       Apr  2
         NGC3393                ACIS-S/HETG
         SN2011ja               ACIS-S       Apr  3
         Radiation Belts
         NGC3115                ACIS-S       Apr  4
         55Cnc                  ACIS-S       Apr  5
         NGC3115                ACIS-S
         Radiation Belts                     Apr  6
         NGC3115                ACIS-S
         RXJ1622.7-2325_P2      ACIS-S       Apr  7
         A1795                  ACIS-I
         MKN421                 ACIS-S/LETG
         4U2129+47              ACIS-S       Apr  8
         A1795                  ACIS-S
         NGC3393                ACIS-S/HETG

------------------------------------------

All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.

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