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    Fact Sheet

    Fact Sheet:
     
    ESA's INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory is detecting some of the most energetic radiation that comes from space. It is the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever launched. INTEGRAL is an ESA mission in cooperation with Russia and the United States.

    Mission Objectives

    INTEGRAL is providing new insight into the most violent and exotic objects of the Universe, such as black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei and supernovae. INTEGRAL is also helping us to understand processes such as the formation of new chemical elements and mysterious gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. This is possible thanks to INTEGRAL's combination of fine spectroscopy and imaging of gamma-ray emissions in the energy range of 15 keV to 10 MeV. INTEGRAL also has an optical camera and X-ray detector, energy range 3 to 35 keV, for simultaneous observations across the EM spectrum.

    Mission Name

    INTEGRAL is an abbreviation for INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory.

    Spacecraft

    Prime contractor

    Alenia Spazio, Turin, Italy

    Launch date

    17 October 2002

    Launcher

    Russian Proton rocket

    Launch mass

    4 tonnes

    Dimensions
    Height 5 metres
    Diameter 3.7 metres
    Solar panels 16 metres across

    Instruments

    Instrument

    Topic

    Principal investigator institutes

    SPI

    Spectrometer with cooled Ge detectors, coded mask and active shield

    J.-P. Roques, CESR Toulouse, France and R. Diehl, MPE Garching, Germany

    IBIS

    Imager with two detector layers (CdTe array, 16 000 pixels and Csl array, 4000 pixels) and coded mask

    P. Ubertini, IAS Rome Italy; F. Lebrun, CE-Saclay, France; G. DiCocco, ITESRE Bologna, Italy

    JEM-X

    X-ray monitor with microstrip proportional counter and coded mask

    S. Brandt, DSRI, Copenhagen, Denmark

    OMC

    Optical monitor with CCD and lens optics

    M. Mas-Hesse, LAEFF-INTA, Madrid, Spain

    Orbit

    Highly eccentric 72-hour orbit around the Earth.

    • Perigee: 9000 km
    • Apogee: 153 000 km
    • Inclination: 51.6°

    The spacecraft spends most of its time above an altitude of 40 000 kilometres outside Earth's radiation belts thereby reducing background radiation effects.

    Operations Centre

    Institute

    Location

    Mission Operations Centre (MOC)

    ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany

    INTEGRAL Science Operations Centre (ISOC)

    ESAC, Madrid, Spain

    INTEGRAL Science Data Centre (ISDC)

    Geneva, Switzerland

    Ground stations

    Redu/ESA

    Belgium

    Goldstone/NASA

    United States


    Last Update: 14 Dec 2012

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