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Introduction

Kieron Leech

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Welcome to the seventh issue of ISO INFO, the newsletter published at irregular intervals to keep the astronomical community informed of the progress of the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO ), the next astronomical mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). Issue 6 of ISO INFO was published last February after the results of the Open Time were announced and before the opening of the Proposal Data Entry Centre, PDEC, at ESTEC and its equivalent at IPAC. Observers have used these 2 centres to enter full details of their observations. This issue contains statistics on the observations entered at PDEC.

Since the last issue, the ISO Flight Model has been shipped to Kourou, French Guyana. It is now scheduled for a launch on Ariane flight V 80 (an Ariane 44P) with a nominal date of 3 November 1995. However, a launch as early as 15 October is still possible. Routine operations will start in late January after a 2.5 month Satellite Commissioning and Performance Verification (PV) phase. Prior to the launch, detailed simulations of operations will take place at the control centre.

This will be the last issue to be distributed from ESTEC, The Netherlands. For the next two years ISO INFO will be distributed from Spain - note the new address at the back. The next issue will be circulated after PV phase giving details of the satellite's in-orbit performance.

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K. Leech
ISO Resident Astronomer
August 1995
Tue Oct 3 19:21:38 MET 1995