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Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 5 March 2010 7.00am EST

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned.

A real-time procedure was executed on Feb 26 to monitor the performance of the MUPS thrusters during a firing at an elevated starting valve temperature. This was the first in a planned series of performance demonstrations, which are hoped to allow for the relaxation of the constraint on starting valve temperatures on scheduling momentum dumps. Real-time procedures were executed on Mar 3 and 4 to perform a routine self-check of the Electrical Interface Assembly (EIA) Sequencer and to update the on-board ephemeris.

A Chandra press release was issued on Feb 26 announcing the award of the first Mani Bhaumik prize for excellence in astronomy education and public outreach to the "From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) project, a worldwide series of exhibitions featuring striking astronomical imagery. NASA was a major sponsor of the project, which was led by the Chandra X-ray Center, that placed these images into public parks, metro stations, libraries, and other non-traditional locations around the world. This award was given for the best of the tens of thousands of activities conducted during the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009. For details see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/10_releases/press_022610.html

A second Chandra press release was issued on Mar 3 describing new Chandra observations which provide evidence for powerful winds blowing away from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy. For details see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/10_releases/press_030310.html

Of note this week was the announcement of the selection of the 2010 Einstein Fellows.

The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below.

------------------------------------------
SDSS1004+4112          ACIS-S        Mar  8
TOOT1307+3639          ACIS-S
CygnusOB2              ACIS-I
Radiation Belts                      Mar  9
CygnusOB2 (3 obs)      ACIS-I
QJ0158-4325            ACIS-S        Mar 10
SDSS0924+0219          ACIS-S
SDSSJ1029+2623         ACIS-S        Mar 11
Radiation Belts
SPT-CL2343-5411        ACIS-I        Mar 12
TWA17                  ACIS-S
Mkn421                 ACIS-S/HETG   Mar 13
MKN421                 ACIS-S/LETG
Mkn421                 HRC-S/LETG
MKN421                 ACIS-S/LETG
Mkn421                 HRC-S/LETG
Mkn421                 ACIS-S/LETG
Mkn421                 HRC-S/LETG
MKN421                 ACIS-S/LETG   Mar 14
Mkn421                 ACIS-S/HETG

------------------------------------------

All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.

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