The Soviet ASTRON mission: legacy

2013 marks the 30th anniversary since the launch of Soviet Spacecraft Astron that had been operated for 6 years as the largest ultraviolet telescope during its lifetime. The Astron orbital station was designed for the astrophysical observations. It was launched into orbit by Proton launch system on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysics and space science 2014-11, Vol.354 (1), p.247-250
Main Authors: Boyarchuk, Alexander, Savanov, Igor, Kanev, Evgeny, Shustov, Boris, Sachkov, Mikhail
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apogees
Astrobiology
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Cosmology
Launch systems
Launches
Observations and Techniques
Onboard
Orbitals
Orbits
Original Article
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Radiation belts
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
Spacecraft
Spectrographs
Ultraviolet astronomy
Ultraviolet telescopes
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Summary:2013 marks the 30th anniversary since the launch of Soviet Spacecraft Astron that had been operated for 6 years as the largest ultraviolet telescope during its lifetime. The Astron orbital station was designed for the astrophysical observations. It was launched into orbit by Proton launch system on March 23, 1983. Astron had a 80 cm ultraviolet telescope with mass of 400 kg and a complex of X-ray spectrographs with mass of 300 kg on board as a payload. It’s high apogee orbit (with apogee 200000 km and perigee 2000 km) permitted the influences of the Earth’s umbra and radiation belts to be excluded from the measurements. The main astrophysical results are summarized in this paper.
ISSN:0004-640X
1572-946X
DOI:10.1007/s10509-014-2025-5