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RHESSI

NSSDC ID: 2002-004A

Description

RHESSI (Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) is an American (NASA) solar flare observatory that was launched at 20:58 UT on 5 February 2002 by a Pegasus XL rocket which was released from a L-1011 aircraft flying out of the Cape Canaveral AFS. The 293 kg (with fuel), 414 W, 2.2 m (height) x 1.1 m (width) satellite is equipped to image at high resolution solar flares in X-rays and gamma rays. Onboard memory is 4 Gbytes, and telemetry rate is 3.5 Mbits/s. A PDMP exists for archiving the data at the NSSDC.

Alternate Names

  • SMEX/RHESSI
  • Small Explorer/RHESSI
  • HESSI
  • Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager
  • Explorer 81
  • 27370

Facts in Brief

Launch Date: 2002-02-05
Launch Vehicle: Pegasus XL
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral, United States
Mass: 230.0 kg
Nominal Power: 414.0 W

Funding Agency

  • NASA-Office of Space Science (United States)

Discipline

  • Solar Physics

Additional Information

Experiments on RHESSI

Data collections from RHESSI

Questions or comments about this spacecraft can be directed to: Ms. Carolyn Y. Ng.

 

Personnel

Name Role Original Affiliation E-mail
Prof. Robert P. Lin Mission Principal Investigator University of California, Berkeley rlin@ssl.berkeley.edu
Dr. Brian R. Dennis Mission Scientist NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Brian.R.Dennis@nasa.gov

Other information about RHESSI

RHESSI Project (NASA/GSFC)
Small Explorer Project (NASA/GSFC)

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