GALEX

 2003-017A

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Galaxy Evolution Explorer is a SMEX launched by Pegasus in 2003. Principal investigator was Chris Martin from CalTech. Its UV telescope will do an all-sky survey and deep surveys in selected areas of sky. It uses the Orbital ATSSB medium LeoStar bus derived from Orbview-4. The light from the telescope passes through an aperture which may be open or filled with a grism disperser, then is split to fall on near and far UV cameras. Thus, the whole UV band is either imaged, or spatially resolved low resolution spectra are obtained. Control will be from Orbital/Dulles and JHU. Orbit will be 690 x 690 km x 28.5.

Size is 2.0l 1.1 dai 2.8 span. Mass is 277 kg. Box + cyl + 2 panels Telescope size is 0.5m, Cassegrain type with 1.2 deg FOV.

Drop point is 29.0N 78.5W.

Mass is 280 kg.

TD-1 sky flux was 1E-12 erg/cm2/s/A = 0.08 Jy at 1565A. GALEX all sky to 20.5AB = 23 uJy, so 3500 times more sensitive.

TD1 limit is 3570x Galex = 0.08 Jy

Galex
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
2003 Apr 28	1103	T/O from CC Skid Strip
	1159:57	Drop
		T+0:05 St 1 ignition
		T+1:31 St 2 ignition
		T+2:06 Fairing sep
		T+2:44 St 2 burnout
		T+7:41 St 2 sep
	1207:49	T+7:52 St 3 ignition
	1208:57	T+9:00 St 3 cutoff
	1210:57	T+11:00 St 3 sep	689 x 702 x 29.0
			690 x 698 x 29.0
2009 Nov		FUV detector failed
2012 Feb 7		Standby mode
2012 May 16		Lent to Caltech
2016 Jun 28	1909	Decomissioned

Payload:

• UV telescope 0.5m primary

• Selectable Prism

• NUV camera (microchannel plate) 1800-3000A, 4" res.

• FUV camera 1350-1800A