_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      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  ***                        <)                    

VSOP MISSION STATUS

VSOP Survey Program observations are continuing at a rate of about two per week. With the end of Green Bank tracking support at the end of February, all HALCA tracking is now carried out with the Usuda tracking station. The Green Bank tracking station was the first of the five tracking stations to achieve high efficiency support in the critical early stages of the mission, and it assumed even greater importance when the Goldstone tracking station was withdrawn from the VSOP mission in January 2001. We thank all those associated with the Green Bank tracking station for their contributions to the VSOP mission.

VSOP DATA ARCHIVE

A data archive of the correlator output of all VSOP observations is in the process of being set-up at ISAS. Data from General Observing Time observations will be made available through the archive after the 18 month proprietary period for that observation (or set of observations) has expired. Data for VSOP Survey Program observations will be made available after the data quality has been checked by a member of the data reduction team. More details will be given in future issues.

RECENT PUBLICATION

The paper "Evidence for parsec-scale absorption from VSOP observations of the BL Lacertae object 0735+178" by Gabuzda, Gomez & Agudo was recently published in MNRAS (vol. 328, p.719). Total intensity and linear polarization VLBI images of 0735+178 were obtained at 5 GHz from VSOP observations with the VLBA and phased VLA as the ground array, and at 15 GHz the following month using the VLBA. A comparison of the two images, which have nearly equivalent resolution, reveals that the path of the jet appears to be appreciably different at the two wavelengths. This is interpreted as evidence for free-free absorption to the east of the core, near a bend of about 90 degrees in the 15 GHz image where the emission is very weak in the 5 GHz image. Overall, the polarization structures seen in corresponding regions at the two wavelengths are in good agreement. Tentative evidence is found for enhanced rotation measures near two sharp bends in the VLBI jet.

VSOP TEAM STAFFING

With the start of the new fiscal year in Japan today, a number of people have changed positions: Wajima-san has moved from ISAS to take up a post-doctoral position at NAO in Mitaka, and Mochizuki-san has moved from NAO to take up a post-doctoral position at ISAS. Inoue-san has become the VSOP Team Manager at Mitaka. Fujisawa-san has moved from Mitaka to take up the position of Associate Professor at Yamaguchi University, and Kobayashi-san has become the VERA Project Manager. Last but not least, David Murphy arrived at ISAS last month from JPL for a four month visit as Visiting Professor.

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi