Hi folks This was passed on to ASTRO by Ron Baalke and I was just wondering how bright this satellite would be - any bets? Cheers Willie ---------------Forward message-------------- RELEASE: 97-24 LAUNCH WILL CREATE A RADIO TELESCOPE LARGER THAN EARTH NASA and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory are joining with an international consortium of space agencies to support the launch of a Japanese satellite next week that will create the largest astronomical "instrument" ever built -- a radio telescope more than two-and-a-half times the diameter of the Earth that will give astronomers their sharpest view yet of the universe. <snip> The 26-foot diameter orbiting radio telescope will observe celestial radio sources in concert with a number of the world's ground-based radio telescopes. The 1,830-pound satellite will be launched from ISAS' Kagoshima Space Center, at the southern tip of Kyushu, one of Japan's main islands, and will be the first launch with ISAS' new M-5 series rocket. The satellite will go into an elliptical orbit, varying between 620 to 12,400 miles above the Earth's surface. This orbit provides a wide range of distances between the satellite and ground-based telescopes, which is important for producing a high- quality image of the radio source being observed. One orbit of the Earth will take about six hours. <snip> - end -