PRESS RELEASE - 16 NOVEMBER 2005

UVIT Kick-off Meeting at MSSL

MSSL received a visit on Wednesday by representatives from the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Canadian Space Agency, Photek Ltd and Routes AstroEngineering. The visit marks the start of a new contract which will see MSSL providing the high voltage power supplies for the Indian/Canadian Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) instrument on the Indian mission 'Astrosat'. MSSL has a long history in producing such hardware which includes successful exports to China and Japan. MSSL was selected to contribute to UVIT as a result of this expertise.

During breaks in the meeting the visitors were met by the head of MSSL, Prof. Alan Smith, and were then taken on a tour of the laboratory facilities.

Astrosat will carry 4 instruments onboard in order to carry out multi-wavelength astronomy studying targets such as Active Galatic Nuclei and X-ray binaries. The engineering model high voltage units will be shippped in August 2006 and the flight model units in December 2006.

For more information on Astrosat use this link:

http://www.isro.org/space_science/images/ASTROSATmissionFigText.htm

This page last modified 14 October, 2005 by Martin de la Nougerede