_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      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  ***                        <)                     
 

PROPOSALS

The first proposal for VSOP observing time has been received! (Rumours that the first proposal received would be guaranteed observing time are, however, unfounded!) Linearly extrapolating the submission rate to the 17th November deadline yields a total of 1.3 proposals for VSOP observing... undoubtedly the linear extrapolation model may need refining in the weeks to come! Proposers are requested to use the PI's name and proposal title as the e-mail subject when submitting the electronic version of their Cover Sheets to help simplify proposal handling.

BOLOGNA MEETINGS

IAU Symposium 175, `Extragalactic Radio Sources', was held in Bologna, Italy, from October 10th to 14th. The well-organized and well-attended conference gave the opportunity for a number of VSOP-related meetings to be held at the same time. The VISC met on the Monday before the conference, and discussed the proposal review process, the Survey Working Group, and the mission/ground radio telescope interfaces. The Survey Working Group met on the Wednesday evening and furthered plans for the production of their candidate source lists. These will be made available shortly. On the Thursday afternoon the GVWG (Global VLBI Working Group) met to review the results of a technical working group meeting, held the previous week in Socorro. Planning is now underway for a test observing run next February to try out the mission-GRT interfaces.

SATELLITE INTEGRATION

The all-important rocket/satellite interface will undergo some mechanical adjustments next week at the Nissan factory in Ogikubo, Tokyo. The nose fairing includes the third stage and kick motor stages of the rocket as well as the satellite. The satellite itself will not be transported from ISAS to Ogikubo for the test: an engineering dummy model will be used and the results transferred to the actual satellite later.

CHICAGO

The route back to Japan took one Bologna participant through Chicago's O'Hare airport. The airport, it was discovered, has Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 5, but no terminal 4. This led to the conjecture that the airport had been designed by a Japanese company, as four (`shi') in Japanese is a homonym with `death'. It is not unknown for hotels in Japan to not have a fourth floor -- much as some western hotels have no 13th floor. Hirax quickly pointed out that it was natural that O'Hare should have some ambiguity in its terminal numbering: Chicago (if read as `shi ka go') is Japanese for `four or five?'!

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi