_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      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  ***                        <)                     
 

NO NEWS...

... is good news. Which is one reason why there hasn't been a VSOP news for a few weeks. The other is that both editors were away from ISAS (and Japan), and both were hoping the other would keep the presses rolling!

VSOP ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY

There have been the usual, perhaps inevitable, delays in dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the VSOP Announcement of Opportunity and Proposer's Guide, and in receiving approval of the documents from the relevant bodies. We expect the release to be early next week. A special short issue of the VSOP news will be sent out announcing the release and giving details of how the documents can be obtained.

MUSES-B PROGRESS

Deployment tests and thermal vacuum tests of the 8m radio-astronomy antenna are continuing at the MELCO factory near Kamakura. The video crew for the VSOP movie (`coming soon to a cinema near you') have attended and recorded antenna deployment tests already. Integration testing of the on-board radio-astronomy system started at NEC on June 22. These tests are to certify the performance of the system after the modifications to some modules following the first integration tests last year. The second overall spacecraft integration test is scheduled to start at ISAS next November, and things must run on schedule from then in order to meet the September 1996 launch.

M-V ROCKET TESTS

The second test firing of the all-important first stage of the M-V rocket took place on Thursday 22nd June at the ISAS test facility in Noshiro, 500 km north of Tokyo. The deafening roar of the firing was heard as far south as the ISAS main campus, just outside Tokyo. (It should be added that the sound was relayed to ISAS by telephone!)

VSOP STAFF

Drs. Rikako Okayasu and Kenta Fujisawa have been selected for Post Doctoral positions to work on VSOP at ISAS for 2 years from June 16. Rikako completed her Ph D at Saitama University, and Kenta's Ph D, on a 22 GHz pre-launch survey, was undertaken at the Tokyo University. Also joining the VSOP team is Detlev Konigorski, from Germany, on a two year JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Fellowship to Tokyo University.

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi