Russian-German Orbital Observatory To Start All-Sky Survey In Mid-2019 - Project Leader

Daniyal Sohail Published December 18, 2018 | 10:03 PM

An orbital observatory built by Russia and Germany may begin surveying the sky in June next year, the project's scientific leader at the Moscow-based Space Research Institute said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2018) An orbital observatory built by Russia and Germany may begin surveying the sky in June next year, the project's scientific leader at the Moscow-based Space Research Institute said Tuesday.

"If it is launched in April as we were promised we will start calibration and survey in about a month and a half," Rashid Syunyaev told reporters at a conference in the institute.

The Spektr-RG mission is scheduled for takeoff from the Baikonur space port atop a Proton-M rocket on April 1-10, 2019. The space observatory will be transported to the launch site on February 20.

Spektr-RG, which stands for Spektr-Roentgen-Gamma, comprises Russia's ART-XC telescope and gamma-ray burst detector, and the German eROSITA telescope. Together they will spend 7.5 years scanning the entire sky for galaxy clusters before focusing on select regions.