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      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                  
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      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

VSOP-2 PROPOSAL STATUS

VSOP-2 has been selected! Three mission proposals (the scientific missions VSOP-2 and NeXT, and the engineering Solar-Sail mission) were submitted to ISAS last October and the evaluation process was completed earlier this month. The Science Steering Committee, which is in charge of evaluating and deciding upon the scientific mission, selected VSOP-2 on February 1. The Solar Sail mission had already been evaluated and endorsed by the Engineering Steering Committee. The decision between the Solar Sail mission and VSOP-2 was made made at ISAS on February 10th, and VSOP-2 was selected. The Feb. 1 and 10 decisions were very important milestones towards realising VSOP-2, but there are further processes before the mission is fully funded.

The overall ISAS Steering Committee (which the Science Steering Committee and Engineering Steering Committee report to) is scheduled to meet on March 3rd, and the selection and approval of next mission will be one of the agenda items. JAXA then includes the mission in its budget request for the 2007 Fiscal Year (starting April 2007) aiming for a satellite launch in 2012 January-February.

INTERNATIONAL VSOP-2 PLANNING MEETINGS

As VSOP-2 is becoming a reality, we are planning a series of international VSOP planning meetings. Papers related to the VSOP-2 mission were submitted for the sessions on "Challenges in High Resolution Space Astronomy: Astrophysics, Technology and Data", and "Multi-scale and Multi-wavelength Studies of Black Holes" of the COSPAR Scientific Assembly, to be held in Beijing from 16-23 July, 2006. We are also planning to arrange a meeting of two hours or so to broadcast the status of VSOP-2 and start to establish scientific collaborations for the project. In addition, presentations at, and/or meetings to coincide with, the following are being considered: the IAU General Assembly in Prague in August, the SKA meeting in Dresden in August, and the EVN Symposium in Torun in September. More details will be provided in future issues.

PASJ AWARD

The paper "The VLBI Space Observatory Programme and the Radio-Astronomical Satellite HALCA" was the first paper in the VSOP Special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan in 2000, and this paper was recently selected for the "PASJ Excellent Paper Award". This award is presented annually to the author(s) of the most outstanding paper published in PASJ, with all papers published during the preceding 5 years being eligible. The award will be made at the Spring Meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan, in Wakayama from March 27th to 29th. All co-authors will receive a certificate commemorating the award.

ASTRO-F

The infra-red surveyor satellite Astro-F was launched on the ISAS M-V rocket at 21:28 UT on February 21st from the Uchinoura (Kagoshima) Space Center into low earth orbit. The satellite was named AKARI (meaning light), and it will be raised to a 750 km high sun-synchronous circular observing orbit in about two weeks.

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi