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Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 25 December 2015 9.00am EST

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned.

A flight software patch was uplinked on on Dec 23 which updates the safing action SCS-78 to include commands to power-on side-A of the valve-drive electronics after it has been powered-off. This patch ensures that Chandra will have the capability for unloading angular momentum follwing a safe-mode transition in which the redundant on-board computer fails to start-up nominally. Real-time procedures were executed on Dec 24 to dump OBC-A memory as a follow-up to the patch. The dump will be used to update the baseline memory image maintained on the ground

An aspect camera dark current calibration was performed from the on-board loads on Dec 21. An assessment of the data indicates nominal aspect camera performance and that the number of CCD warm pixels is increasing at the expected rate.

A Chandra press release was issued on Dec 21 describing observations of a gigantic tail of X-ray emission that has been found behind a galaxy plowing through the galaxy cluster Zwicky 8338. With a length of at least 250,000 light years, this is likely the largest such tail ever detected. Scientists used Chandra to discover the tail, study its properties and learn how this X-ray tail affects its cluster environment. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/press/15_releases/press_122115.html

The schedule of targets for the next two weeks is shown below and includes an observation of Cyg X-1, which was accepted as a Target of Opportunity on Dec 9 and is coordinated with NuSTAR, an observation of PSN J10520833+3256394, which was accepted as a Target of Opportunity on Dec 22, observations of SDSS J0859+0426, 2MASS J08055713+0417035, SDSS J1509+0304, SDSS J1019+2119, and SDSS J1104+4345 coordinated with ground-based observatories, and an observation of 2MASX J04595677+3502536 coordinated with NuSTAR.



------------------------------------------
        Radiation Belts                     DEC 27
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        2MASXJ04595677+3502    ACIS-S
        J0844                  ACIS-S
        SDSSJ1509+0304         ACIS-S       Dec 28
        2MASSJ08055713+0417    ACIS-S
        NGC2617                ACIS-S/HETG
        SDSSJ1019+2119         ACIS-S
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG  Dec 29
        Radiation Belts
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        PSZ2G170.98+39.45      ACIS-I       Dec 30
        NGC2617                ACIS-S/HETG
        SMus                   ACIS-I       Dec 31
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        Radiation Belts                     Jan  1
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        NGC2693                ACIS-S
        NGC2617                ACIS-S/HETG  Jan  2
        SDSSJ1104+4345         ACIS-S       Jan  3
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        Radiation Belts                     Jan  4
        Abell623               ACIS-S
        PSNJ10520833+325639    ACIS-S
        SDSSJ0859+0426         ACIS-S
        PSZ2G224.01-11.14      ACIS-I
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        ZWCL1478               ACIS-I       Jan  5
        Zw121.071              ACIS-S
        HZ43 (2 obs)           HRC-I/LETG
        CygX-1                 ACIS-S/HETG
        Radiation Belts                     Jan  6
        NGC7469                ACIS-S/HETG
        HD191612               ACIS-S/HETG  Jan  7
        CSWA30                 ACIS-S
        Abell623               ACIS-S
        SDSSJ085953.33+1310    ACIS-S
        HZ43                   HRC-S/LETG
        RMJ164325.4+132235.    ACIS-I       Jan  8
        SDSSJ090547.34+3747    ACIS-S
        HD191612               ACIS-S/HETG
        Radiation Belts                     Jan  9
        LMCX-2                 ACIS-S/HETG
        2MASXJ08384815+0407    ACIS-S
        SDSSJ084135.08+0101    ACIS-S       Jan 10
        LMCX-2                 ACIS-S/HETG

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

All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.

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