XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-NEWTON NEWS #1,   16-Mar-2000

ESA, XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC)
P.O. Box - Apdo. 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain

SOC Home Page: http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
Helpdesk web interface: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xmm-newton-helpdesk
Helpdesk email address: xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int
News Mailing List: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/newsletterindex.shtml

Contents:


Dear Colleagues,

As many people have recently inquired about the XMM-Newton status, I would like to provide you with a brief update.

Following a review meeting at the Science Operations Centre, ESAC, Madrid on 8 and 9 March, the Commissioning Phase of the XMM-Newton satellite, the spacecraft and the scientific instruments was declared completed successfully.

The spacecraft's performance is well within specification and, in a number of areas, well within the predictions made at the Flight Acceptance Review. The performance of the X-ray optical system, as measured so far, is in line with the expectations from ground testing. The scientific instruments are all fully functional (with the exception of CCD4 of the RGS2). During this phase too, the Ground Systems including stations, the Mission Control Centre (ESOC, Darmstadt) and the Science Operations Centre (ESAC) were fully exercised and a number of upgrades will be introduced as a matter of course. The next phase, the Calibration and Performance Verification Phase, during which the real scientific performance and capability of the XMM-NEWTON mission will be determined, is now underway.

We will start providing updates to the XMM-Newton status WWW pages on a daily basis shortly, and this will involve providing public access to the XMM-Newton observing log. We will provide public access to a limited number of XMM-Newton Observation Data Files (ODF) as soon as we are sure that these are fully compliant to their specification, and the data analysis software and calibration data are in a state to reliably allow for use of these data sets. Once we will have all this in place we will announce this in another general E-mail to all XMM-Newton users.


Fred Jansen
XMM-Newton Project Scientist