- Not to be confused with the USSR's: RORSAT satellite or the Roman Catholic bishop, Adalberto Arturo Rosat.
Data[]
| Category. | Statistic. |
|---|---|
| Launch vehicle. | Delta II 6920-10. |
| Launch date. | 1 June 1990 (UTC). |
| Launch site. | Cape Canaveral LC-17A. |
| Ceased operations. | 12 February 1999. |
| Owner(s). | The German Aerospace Center? |
| Major contractor(s). | The German Aerospace Center, with instruments from the UK and USA. |
| Is it still in orbit. | No, it burnt up on 23 October 2011. |
| Launch mass. | 2,421 kilograms (5,337 lb). |
| Nationality(s). | UK/USA/W. Germany. |
| Satellite type. | Astronomy X-ray space telescope. |
| Links. | https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rosgof.html, , https://web.archive.org/web/20001210175800/http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/mpenews66, https://archive.ph/20120414223803/http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_48/b4110072404167.htm, http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/mpenews66, https://skyserver.sdss.org/dr1/en/proj/advanced/skysurveys/rosat.asp, https://www.britannica.com/topic/ROSAT, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROSAT and https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rosat3.html. |
Launch of the ROSAT in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Author: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA-MSFC).
Namesake[]
"ROSAT" is short for Röntgensatellit; in German X-rays are called Röntgenstrahlen, in honour of Wilhelm Röntgen.
Malfunction[]
A reaction wheel in the spacecraft's Attitude Measuring and Control System damaged the High Resolution Imager in 1998. In 2008, NASA officially calmed in 2008 that it linked to possibly Russian or Chinese a cyber-intrusion at Goddard Space Flight Center.