Rosat

RÖntgen SATellit

---

General

Designation	20638 / 90049A
Launch date	1 Jun 1990
Country of origin	Germany
Operator	DLR (German aerospace research establishment)
Mission	Scientific: X-ray astronomy
Perigee/Apogee	538/553 km
Inclination	53°
Period	95.6 min
Launch vehicle	Delta 2 #195

Designed to produce an all-sky survey of some 100,000 X-ray sources, and first all-sky survey in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) spectrum using the UK-provided Wide Field Camera.

---

External resources

http://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov/rosat/rosat.html

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rosat_images.html
sat-index articles

---

End of life

Out of service	Sep 1998
Cause	pointed accidentaly towards the sun which destroyed the payload.
Decay	23 Oct 2011

Technical data

---

---

Specifications

Prime contractor	Astrium (was Dornier)
Mass at launch	2426 kg
Payload mass	1555 kg
Dimension	2.4 x 2.1 x 4.5 m
Solar array	4.7 x 8.9 m
Stabilization	3-axis
DC power	EOL: 1000 W
Design lifetime	1.5 years
Telemetry - Data	S-band

---

X-ray telescope

Maximum aperture	835 mm
Focal length	2.4 m
On-axis resolution	1.8 arcsecs
Wavelength	0.6-1 µm

It monitors soft 0.1-2.4 keV X-rays.

---

Wield Field Camera

Maximum aperture	576 mm
Focal length	525 mm
On-axis resolution	1 arcmin
Wavelength	0.6-3 µm

---