 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2019) |
 Scheme of the telescope | |||||||||||
| Names | ISO | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | ESA with significant contributions from ISAS and NASA | ||||||||||
| COSPAR ID | 1995-062A | ||||||||||
| SATCAT no. | 23715 | ||||||||||
| Website | ISO at ESA science | ||||||||||
| Mission duration | 28 months 22 days | ||||||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||||||
| Manufacturer | Aérospatiale | ||||||||||
| BOL mass | 2498 kg | ||||||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||||||
| Launch date | 01:20, 17 November 1995 (UTC) | ||||||||||
| Rocket | Ariane 4 4P | ||||||||||
| Launch site | ELA-2 | ||||||||||
| End of mission | |||||||||||
| Deactivated | 16 May 1998 | ||||||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||||||
| Reference system | Geocentric | ||||||||||
| Regime | Highly elliptical | ||||||||||
| Perigee altitude | 1000 km | ||||||||||
| Apogee altitude | 70600 km | ||||||||||
| Period | 24 hr | ||||||||||
| Orbiter | |||||||||||
| Main | |||||||||||
| Type | Ritchey-Chrétien | ||||||||||
| Diameter | 60 cm | ||||||||||
| Focal length | 900 cm, f/15 | ||||||||||
| Wavelengths | 2.4 to 240 micrometre (infrared) | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
 Legacy ESA insignia for the ISO mission | |||||||||||
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was a space telescope for infrared light designed and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with ISAS (now part of JAXA) and NASA. The ISO was designed to study infrared light at wavelengths of 2.5 to 240 micrometres and operated from 1995 to 1998.[1]
The €480.1-million satellite[2][3] was launched on 17 November 1995 from the ELA-2 launch pad at the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou in French Guiana. The launch vehicle, an Ariane 44P rocket, placed ISO successfully into a highly elliptical geocentric orbit, completing one revolution around the Earth every 24 hours. The primary mirror of its Ritchey-Chrétien telescope measured 60 cm in diameter and was cooled to 1.7 kelvins by means of superfluid helium. The ISO satellite contained four instruments that allowed for imaging and photometry from 2.5 to 240 micrometres and spectroscopy from 2.5 to 196.8 micrometers.
ESA and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center made efforts to improve the data pipelines and specialized software analysis tools to yield the best quality calibration and data reduction methods from the mission. IPAC supports ISO observers and data archive users through in-house visits and workshops.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ESA-ISOwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kessler, Martin (November 2003). "ISO - Mission & Satellite Overview Volume I" (PDF).
- ^ "ISO Handbook Volume I (GEN)". ESA COSMOS. Retrieved 2024-05-17.