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PTB Industry News				March 9, 1999
Spectrum Astro Teams with NASA in Swift Observatory Project

PHOENIX, AZ -- Spectrum Astro, Inc. will team with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to provide the spacecraft bus for the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Mission. The mission is among the five candidates selected for NASA's medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program, designed to foster lower-cost, rapidly developed scientific spacecraft. As a MIDEX finalist, the Swift team will now process to the Phase A Study -- a $350K, four-month feasibility study based on costs, management, and technical plans. Based on the results of studies submitted by finalists, NASA will select two of the missions in September 1999 for full development under the MIDEX program. The Swift mission will develop a three-telescope space observatory to investigate the properties origins of gamma ray bursts. The Swift Observatory is to be a self-sufficient, scientific platform for detection, location, and analysis of these events. The spacecraft will be designed to rapidly slew toward a gamma ray burst within 10 seconds of its onset. "Currently, there is no one spacecraft on orbit capable of observing gamma ray bursts over multiple spectral bands from optical to gamma rays, and none has the ability to slew rapidly to the bursts to observe the energy signatures with optimum instrument pointing," said Dom Conte, who manages the Swift Program at Spectrum Astro. "Swift will accomplish both these goals." Three scientific instruments onboard the Swift Observatory will be used to study the nature and origin of gamma ray bursts: a gamma ray telescope, an X-ray telescope, and a visible/UV telescope. The gamma ray telescope has a wide field of view and will be used to alert the spacecraft of a burst and will collect data. Coordinates of the burst will be transferred from the gamma ray telescope to the spacecraft bus, which then slews in tens of seconds to aim the two narrow-field telescopes at the source. The coordinates are also telemetered to the ground via the TDRSS Demand Access link for concurrent observation using ground-based assets. It is anticipated that this event will occur several times a week. Dr. Neil Gehrels of NASA Goddard is the Swift Principal Investigator. Goddard Space Flight Center is the prime contractor, responsible for building the gamma ray telescope and for observatory integration and testing. Spectrum Astro will design and develop the spacecraft bus, provide launch-vehicle integration, and collaborate with Goddard to support observatory I&T and on-orbit checkout. Manufacture of the X-ray and visible/UV telescopes is being coordinated by Penn State University.      PTB Home