Russian-German X-Ray Space Telescope Reaches Working Orbit 1.5Mln Kilometers From Earth

Russian-German X-Ray Space Telescope Reaches Working Orbit 1.5Mln Kilometers From Earth

The Russian-German Space Observatory Spektr-RG, launched into orbit in July, has reached its operating point, which is located at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) from Earth, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos reported on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2019) The Russian-German Space Observatory Spektr-RG, launched into orbit in July, has reached its operating point, which is located at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) from Earth, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos reported on Monday.

The Spektr-RG mission is a joint project between Roscosmos and the German space agency DLR. Spektr-RG was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 13.

"The Spektr-RG has completed the phase of the flight to the vicinity of point L2 [Lagrange point]," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Roscosmos earlier reported that the start of the implementation of the main scientific program, which focuses on the review of the celestial sphere, was planned for November 3.

For the next four years the telescope is expected to perform eight all-sky surveys to map X-rays sources in the Universe with unprecedented detail. The 2.5 years after that are planned for observations of selected galaxy clusters.