Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 10 January 2003 9.00am EST

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned. A real-time procedure was completed on 10 Jan to perform a state of health check of the Momentum Unloading Propulsion System (MUPS) A-1 thruster. Analysis of data from the last momentum unloading on Dec 22 indicated a lower than expected performance from the thruster resulting in a longer than predicted unload. A state of health check was conducted to confirm that the continued operation of A-1 was safe. All data indicated nominal A-1 performance during the state of health check. A calibration of all four MUPS thrusters will be performed on 12 Jan. The observing schedule was not impacted by the unload or state of health check. A Chandra press release was issued on 6 January that describes the longest X-ray look yet at the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center. For details see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/03_releases/press_010603.html. The observing schedule for next week is shown below and consists of a series of long observations of the Orion Nebular.

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

Radiation Belts         None         Jan 12
Orion Nebula Cluster    ACIS-I       Jan 13
Radiation Belts         None         Jan 15
Orion Nebula Cluster    ACIS-I
Radiation Belts         None         Jan 17
Orion Nebula Cluster    ACIS-I       Jan 18

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

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

Return to Status Reports