_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      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  ***                        <)                    

THE NEXT PHASE OF THE VSOP PROJECT

The VSOP project entered what will probably be its final phase this week. Until now, with the exception of periods around New Year, HALCA has been commanded and monitored six days a week. As repeated attempts to restart HALCA's reaction wheel D have been unsuccessful, the tracking passes are being cut back to once a week. Should appropriate conditions be met, attempts to re-start the wheel will be made again, but otherwise the satellite will continue to be monitored and its orbital evolution tracked.

VSOP TEAM

The VSOP team at ISAS farewelled Kaj Wiik at the end of last month. Kaj spent a year as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellow, contributing to the VSOP survey program, the VSOP data archive, and VSOP-2 planning, as well as continuing his own research. Kaj will be missed at ISAS, and was clearly missed from Tuorla Observatory back in Finland, as within 15 minutes of his return he had been asked to install aips on a colleague's laptop! It is, however, good to see that the number of VLBI users is increasing.

The international VSOP team sends its best wishes to Joel Smith, former Project Manager for the US Space VLBI Project, who is retiring from JPL on September 15. It is, coincidentally, 15 years since Joel first became involved with the VSOP project, at the Frontiers of VLBI meeting at ISAS in December 1989. Joel's understanding of the technical, cultural and political complexities of the mission, and his positive approach toward resolving them, have been greatly appreciated.

VSOP-2

A presentation on VSOP-2 was given last month at the Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference (AP-RASC) in Qingdao, China. The current status of the mission will also be described at the 7th European VLBI Meeting to be held from October 12th to 15th at Toledo, Spain (http://www.oan.es/evn2004/) with the VSOP-2 related papers submitted to this meeting also available from the VSOP-2 web page (http://www.vsop.isas.jaxa.jp/vsop2e/).

OPEN DAYS

The ISAS Open Day was successfully held on Saturday August 28th, despite rainy weather on the day. Over 10,000 people visited ISAS on the day, with the black hole potential demonstration at the VSOP booth proving very popular with younger visitors. Pictures from the Open Day (including one of the black hole demonstration) [were at the time this issue was disributed] available on the ISAS website, https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/index.shtml .

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi