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Selected Past Missions

These are selected high energy past space missions that have data or catalogs at the HEASARC.
  • ANS - Lifetime: Aug 1974 - June 1977, Energy Range: 0.1 - 30 keV and 1500-3300 Angstoms
  • Ariel V - Lifetime: Oct 1974 - Mar 1980, Energy Range: 0.3 - 40 keV
  • ASCA - Lifetime: 1993 - 2001, Energy Range : 0.4-10 keV
      First X-ray mission to combine broad band imaging capability, good spectral resolution, and a large effective area
  • BBXRT - Lifetime: Dec 1990, Energy Range: 0.3 - 12 keV, Shuttle-borne instrument
  • BeppoSAX - Lifetime: 1996 - 2002, Energy Range: 0.1-300 keV
      Broad-band energy coverage and X-ray imaging of the sources associated with gamma-ray bursts and thus determining their positions with an unprecedented precision
  • CGRO (Compton Gamma Ray Observatory) - Lifetime: 1991 - 2000, Energy Range: 30 keV - 30 GeV
      First Great Gamma-Ray observatory. Discovery of an isotropic distribution of gamma-ray bursts
  • Copernicus - Lifetime: Aug 1972 - late 1980, Energy Range: 0.5 - 10 keV
  • COS-B - Lifetime: Aug 1975 - Apr 1982, Energy Range: 2 keV - 5 GeV
  • DXS - Lifetime: Jan 1993, Energy Range: 0.15 - 0.28 keV, Shuttle-borne instrument
  • Einstein - Lifetime: Nov 1978 - Apr 1981, Energy Range: 0.2 - 20 keV
  • EUVE (Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer) - Lifetime: 1992 - 2001, Energy Range : 70- 760 Angstroms
      First dedicated extreme ultraviolet mission
  • EXOSAT - Lifetime: May 1983 - Apr 1986, Energy Range: 0.05 - 20 keV,
      90-hour highly eccentric Earth orbit
  • Ginga - Lifetime: Feb 1987 - Nov 1991, Energy Range: 1 - 400 keV
  • Granat - Lifetime: Dec 1989 - Nov 1998, Energy Range: 2 keV - 100 MeV
  • HaloSat- Lifetime : Oct 2018 - Jan 2021, Energy range 0.4-7 keV.
    First CubeSat mission. Survey the Milky Way hot gas and constrain the mass and geometry of the Galactic halo.
  • Hakucho - Lifetime: Feb 1979 - Apr 1985, Energy Range: 0.1 - 100 keV
  • HEAO-1 - Lifetime: Aug 1977 - Jan 1979, Energy Range: 0.2 - 10 keV
  • HEAO-3 - Lifetime: Sep 1979 - May 1981, Energy Range: 50 keV - 10 MeV
  • HETE-2 - Lifetime: Oct 2000 - Oct 2006, Energy Range: 0.5 - 400 keV,
      designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts
  • Hitomi - Lifetime: Feb 2016 - Mar 2016, Energy Range: 0.3 - 600 keV
  • OSO-7 - Lifetime: Sep 1971 - Jul 1974, Energy Range: 1 keV - 10 MeV
  • OSO-8 - Lifetime: Jun 1975 - Sep 1978, Energy Range: 0.15 keV - 1 MeV
  • ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) - Lifetime: 1990 - 1999, Energy Range: 0.1-2.5 keV
      All-sky survey in the soft X-ray band with catalog containing more than 150000 objects
  • RXTE - Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. Lifetime: Dec 1995 - Jan 2012, Energy Range: 1.5 - 240 keV,
      very large collecting area and all-sky soft X-ray monitor, precision timing with 1 microsecond resolution
  • SAS-2 - Lifetime: Nov 1972 - Jun 1973, Energy Range: 20 Mev - 1 GeV
  • SAS-3 - Lifetime: May 1975 - 1979, Energy Range: 0.1 - 60 keV
  • Suzaku - Lifetime:10 Jul 2005 - 2 Sep 2015, Energy Range:0.2-600 keV
  • Tenma - Lifetime: Feb 1983 - late 1984, Energy Range: 0.1 - 60 keV
  • Uhuru - Lifetime: Dec 1970 - Mar 1973, Energy Range: 2 - 20 keV
  • Vela 5B - Lifetime: May 1979 - Jun 1979, Energy Range: 3 - 750 keV
  • WASS rocket - Lifetime: 6 flights between Dec 1972 - Mar 1979, Energy Range: 0.1 - 6 keV
  • XQC rocket - Lifetime: 6 flights between Dec 1995 - Mar 2013, Energy Range: 0.1 - 1.1 keV