_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      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  ***                        <)                    

2000 DAYS IN ORBIT

August 5th marked the 2000th day in orbit for the HALCA satellite! HALCA continues to be in reasonable health for its age: the on-board solid-state data recorder, used to store housekeeping data between tracking passes, has not functioned well for some time and has for now been switched off. This of course has no impact on HALCA's participation in VSOP observing, which continues at a rate of about ten observations per month. The only recent hitch was the cancellation of an observation earlier this month, as a typhoon's approach to Kyushu prevented the commands to maneuver the satellite to the target from being uplinked in time. This week was the annual health check for ISAS employees, and next week HALCA's "eyesight" will similarly be tested, with pointing tests being undertaken at both 1.6 and 5 GHz.

ISAS OPEN DAY

The annual ISAS open day was held on July 27th. The VSOP/VSOP-2 display was allocated prime "real estate" in the foyer of the main building at ISAS. The 1/10 scale model of HALCA was displayed, as usual, along with a half-scale model of a section a possible VSOP-2 antenna. This particular design uses seven hexagonal segments, and the full-scale antenna design was illustrated by yellow tape applied to the floor. A photo giving a much better idea of the display is currently shown on the front page of the VSOP website!

URSI

The triennial URSI General Assembly was held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in August. Various VSOP results, and VSOP-2 development studies, were presented in the oral and poster sessions. The opportunity was also taken to hold a VSOP-2 meeting during the week. Interest in the mission was demonstrated by the fact the meeting room was filled to overflowing! A summary of the meeting will be available from the VSOP-2 web page next week.

HII-A LAUNCH

The third launch of NASDA's H-IIA rocket took place on September 10th, following test launches in August 2001 (see VSOP news 132) and February 2002. The launch carried the Data Relay Test Satellite (DRTS) and the Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System (USERS) into orbit. USERS, which was placed in orbit 450 km above the Earth's surface 14 minutes after lift-off, contains a service module and a re-entry module. After 8.5 months in orbit the reentry module will autonomously reenter the Earth's atmosphere, splashing down to the east of Ogasawara Island (which is home to one of the VERA antennas). DRTS, with a launch mass of 2800kg, was placed in a geostationary transfer orbit (with a perigee height of 450km and apogee height of 36,000km), and will later fire its own engine to complete the insertion into a geostationary orbit. The next H-IIA launch is planned for later this year.

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi