The start from Baikonur launch platform is scheduled for 3:17 pm on 21st June.
One of the most important parts of the mission is X-ray telescope observations which are to be provided by Kazan University's RTT-150 telescope in Turkey, managed jointly with the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences), and National Observatory of Turkey. The data will be analyzed by Russian and German scientists. Spektr-RG's two main telescopes are eROSITA (Germany) and ART-XC (Russia).
During its 7 years of functioning, Spektr-RG has to conduct X-ray scans of the Universe. The first 4 years will be dedicated to 8 full scans, and the next 3 – to deeper studies of the most interesting objects.
Research Supervisor of the Spektr-RG mission, Academician Rashid Sunyaev comments, “Kazan University becomes one of the ground-based support centers for Spektr-RG. Head of Astrophysics and Space Geodesy Division Nail Sakhibullin, Chair of the Department of Astronomy and Space Geodesy Ilfan Bikmaev and their colleagues have had immense experience of optical observations from Planck and INTEGRAL missions. Kazanian astrophysicists, photometrists and spectroscopists used the Turkey-based telescope to produced detailed images of distant galactic clusters, determined their redshift parameters and measured spectral lines in their spectra.”
Notably, Kazan University started preparing students for this particular project two years ago.
According to Dr. Sunyaev, the mission is expected to discover about three million supermassive black holes. The researchers will be able to see almost all major galactic clusters in the observable Universe and to analyze X-ray spectra of hundreds of thousands of stars. Apart from that, they also hope to observe effects of interaction between the solar wind and interstellar medium on the outer border of the Solar System.
UPD 6/21/19 12:35 - The launch is postponed until 22nd June. We'll be updating this article accordingly.
UPD 6/21/19 22:46 - The launch is postponed until after 12th July.
UPD: 7/15/19 14:20 - The mission launched successfully on 13th July, 15:31.
Source text: Natalia Doroshkevich
Translation: Yury Nurmeev