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RadioAstron Newsletter Number 2
June 22, 2011
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1. RadioAstron Spacecraft Status

We are happy to report that all the tests of the RadioAstron spacecraft
are successfully finished. The satellite with the 10-meter space radio
telescope is planned to be shipped from Moscow to Baikonur on June 24.
The launch is scheduled for July 18, 2011, 2am UTC, on the Zenit-2
rocket. For the case of bad weather, a few other days for launching are
available until the end of July.

You can enjoy a few nice photos of the space radio telescope at the
Lavochkin web site:
http://www.laspace.ru/images/Spektr193.jpg
http://www.laspace.ru/images/Spektrsverx.jpg
http://www.laspace.ru/images/spectrr11.jpg

2. Ground support

The spacecraft will be controlled from two sites in Russia, Bear Lakes
and Ussuriisk. The tracking station in Pushchino is tested successfully
and ready for operations. The following radio telescopes are planned to
participate in the first interferometric observations -- fringe search
-- after successful engineering in-orbit-checkout phase: Arecibo,
Badary, Effelsberg, GBT, Medicina, Noto, Svetloe, Zelenchukskaya.

More details could be found in the Radioastron User HandBook
http://www.asc.rssi.ru/radioastron/documents/rauh/en/rauh.pdf
which will be updated soon with the most recent orbit.


Nikolai Kardashev (nkardash@asc.rssi.ru)
Yuri Kovalev (yyk@asc.rssi.ru)