_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/          
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--             
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _             
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|            
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                   
                                                          /                    
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                     
 

EXPRESS

The Japanese-German EXPRESS mission was launched on schedule in the evening of Sunday, the 15th of January (JST). Unfortunately, the satellite was not able to be inserted in the correct orbit, and was subsequently lost. The EXPRESS mission was planned to orbit the earth for 5 days, before re-entering the atmosphere and landing on the Woomera rocket range in South Australia. The problem appears to have been the thrust vector controllers of the second stage booster. This was only the second failure for ISAS in the twenty-five years since the first launch in 1970.

THE KOBE QUAKE

The devastating earthquake that struck the port city of Kobe has received wide coverage. A number of people e-mailed their concern for the safety of VSOP team members and their relatives, which were greatly appreciated. Fortunately no members of the immediate families of any member of the VSOP project was killed in the quake. The death toll has topped 5,000, making the quake the worst to hit Japan since the 1923 Tokyo quake. Kobe University appears to have suffered little damage as a result of the quake, though Kounan University does not appear to have been so lucky. One Ph D student from Kobe University was very lucky to survive. His apartment building collapsed during the quake, trapping him underneath. A fellow graduate student, after checking at the University to see who had not been heard from, went to the Ph D student's apartment, calling his name. Hearing a reply from under the collapsed building, the student dug his colleague out. The remains of the apartment were later caught up in one of the many blazes that started after the quake... Many people were not so fortunate. The quake was measured in Japan as having a magnitude of 7.2, and some parts of Kobe were rated as receiving the maximum rating of 7 of the Japanese scale (which measures local vibration intensity as opposed to total quake energy.)

WORLD WIDE WEB

The VSOP project's home page is ready for release. The URL (Universal Resource Locator) is /astro/halca/vsop/ . Questions, comments or suggestions regarding the home page can be e-mailed to vsopWWW@orihime.isaslan1.isas.ac.jp. A link to the JPL Space VLBI Project home page is included, and also a link to a preliminary Radio-Astronomy in Japan page. The VSOP home page will be updated on a regular basis.

VSOG MEETING

The VSOP Science Operations Group will meet next week at the Sagamihara campus of ISAS. Several VISC (VSOP International Science Council) sub-committees will also convene during the week. Issues to be worked on include the Announcement of Opportunity, the User's Guide, and proposal format etc.

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi