_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/         
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--            
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _            
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|           
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                  
                                                          /                   
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

HALCA STATUS

From mid-October to mid-November there was a break in VSOP observing while HALCA underwent a season of long (up to 90 minute) eclipses. In late October, HALCA experienced a loss of attitude control (the first such occurrence for over 1.5 years), however attitude control was quickly regained by firing the thrusters. The current observing rate is ten or so observations per month.

THE FUTURE OF THE VSOP MISSION

In the long break between no. 132 and this issue (for which, our apologies) the nominal AO7 deadline of October 1st came and went. AO7 was not released, due to uncertainty over what form the mission will have next year. It is now clear that NASA will end its funding of US mission elements in February 2002, the fifth anniversary of HALCA's launch, in line with the ISAS/NASA Memorandum of Understanding. The discontinuation of NASA funding, which supports the DSN and Green Bank tracking stations, NRAO VLBA correlator operations, and JPL orbit determination team, amongst others, will result in a significant change in the structure of the mission. From February 2002, the mission will concentrate on the VSOP Survey Program, with occasional GOT observations selected from remaining proposal pool. The Canadian Space Agency will continue supporting Canadian involvement for another year (through the Penticton correlator and S2 support) and individual ground telescopes have indicated their willingness to continue their involvement in Survey observations, which will enable VSOP observations of all Survey Program sources by February 2003.

RECENT PUBLICATION

The proceedings of IAU Symposium 205 have now been published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as "Galaxies and their Constituents at the Highest Angular Resolutions", eds. R.T. Schilizzi, S.N. Vogel, F. Paresce and M. Elvis. A number of VSOP-related papers appear in this volume: "The Core-Jet Radio Source in the Center of M81", Bartel et al. "The Sub-Parsec Structure of Accretion Disks as Revealed by VLBI Imaging of Free-Free Absorption", Jones et al. "The VSOP Project: Space VLBI Imaging of AGN at 1.6 and 5 GHz", Murata et al. "The VSOP Survey Program", Lovell et al. "Pearson-Readhead Survey from Space", Preston et al. "Co-ordinated VSOP and Chandra Observations of 0836+710", Murphy et al. "Space VLBI Observations of PKS 1921-293", Shen et al. "The Quasar 3C345 at the Highest Resolution with mm- and Space-VLBI", Klare et al. "The Compact Magnetic Field Structures of AGN from Space VLBI Polarization Observations", Gabuzda and Gomez, "The gamma-ray Loud Quasar PKS 1510-089", Venturi et al. "A Sub-pc-scale Acceleration of the Radio Jet of NGC 6251", Sudou et al. "Space VLBI", Hirabayashi, "Current Status of the VSOP-2 Mission", Hirabayashi et al.

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi