Space X-ray telescope arrives for tests at RAL
An X-ray telescope weighing half a tonne, due for launch on a Russian spacecraft in 1998, arrived at CLRC'­s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory today for thermal tests. With conditions in space so different from those on Earth (space is an icy-cold vacuum), it is vital to test any instrument before launch to make sure that it can work in a vacuum at temperatures of about -270?C. This will be simulated by suspending the telescope inside RAL'­s new Space Test Chamber - a 5 meter-long steel tank, lined with panels cooled by liquid nitrogen. The Joint European Telescope for X-ray astronomy (JET-X) is over 4 meters long and weighs 540 kg; it is one of the biggest space astronomy instruments ever to b