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Spektr-RG

Spektr-RG
Spektr-RG russian X-ray space telescope P1110968.jpg
Spektr-RG
Mission type X-ray astronomy
Operator Russian Space Research Institute
European Space Agency, Max Planck Institute, University of Leicester
Website hea.iki.rssi.ru/SRG/
Spacecraft properties
Bus Navigator
Manufacturer NPO Lavochkin
Start of mission
Launch date Mar-Apr 2018
Rocket Proton-M
Launch site Baikonur 45/1
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Main telescope
Type eROSITA: Wolter
Wavelengths X-ray
Instruments
eROSITA, Lobster, ART-XC

Spektr-RG (Russian for Spectrum + Röntgen + Gamma; also called Spectrum-X-Gamma, SRG, SXG) is an international high-energy astrophysics observatory, which is being built under the leadership of the Russian Space Research Institute (IKI). Spektr-RG instrumentation includes 5 telescopes spanning the energy range from the far ultraviolet to the hard X-ray, plus an all-sky monitor. As of April 2016 it is planned to launch from March 1 to April 14, 2018.

Development of an early version with the same name was cancelled in 2002. The second Spektr-RG is intended to study interplanetary magnetic field, galaxies, black holes.

The Spektr-RG programme was revived in 2005 and the spacecraft was in final stages of assembly during 2016. As of mid-2016 and after repeated slippage in the schedule, instrument launch is scheduled for early-2018. The observatory is intended to study the interplanetary magnetic field, galaxies and black holes.

Development of an early version of Spektr-RG was started in mid-1990s and was cancelled in 2002. Initial launch date was set to 1995, but later postponed as far as 2008, until it was finally cancelled in 2002. However, some of the instruments have been completed, e.g., an X-ray telescope by Leicester University (JET-X) and an ultraviolet telescope by Tel-Aviv University (TAUVEX).

The satellite would have been launched into a 51.5 degree orbit with an apogee of 200,000 kilometres (120,000 mi) and a period of four days, by a Proton-K rocket with a Blok DM-2 upper stage.


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