The prime instrument on Astro-E was the X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). The XRS measures heat created by individual X-ray photons.

Along with the XRS were four X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) instruments, a collaboration among Japanese universities and institutions and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Space Research, and the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD), built by the University of Tokyo and ISAS.

Due to a problem with the first stage of the M-5 rocket, Astro-E did not reach orbit. Astro-E was to join the recently launched European X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM) satellite and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to ring in a new era of X-ray astronomy. The NASA cost for instrument development was $44.9 million.

In terms of science, the loss of Astro-E leaves a void in the understanding of higher-energy X-ray sources, such as galaxy clusters and supernova remnants and of supermassive black holes, which reveal their secrets in the iron atom emissions that Astro-E would have resolved so clearly.

Astro-E was also the test bed for the X-ray calorimeter, a key component in future X-ray missions. The X-ray calorimeter (the sensor part of XRS) is a new technology that measures the heat deposited by incoming X-ray photons. This technology has been tested on balloons. Astro-E was to be the first long-term test in the harsh environment of space.

NASA has cooperated with ISAS on very complex and important space science missions, and planning and work on future missions together continues.

Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics

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