National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Wow, did I sleep that long? It sure is good to wake up and see my friends from the US again. Everyone’s back here!

Yesterday they cooled my liquid helium back down to 1.2 Kelvin. They do this alot. They hook up my helium tank to a vacuum pump, and pump out any gas that may be in the tank. This creates a vacuum, which lowers the pressure. This lower pressure lowers the boiling point. (This is just like how water boils at a temperature less than 100 C on a high mountain top – it’s because of the lower atmospheric pressure.) About half of the liquid helium boils away in the process, but what’s left is at a lower temperature.

Anyway, they’re running the same tests they did back in December. What, do they think I’m turning into a geezer or something? Of course I can still see X-rays, just as well as I could then. Well, I guess they had to be sure, and it is good to be running again.

Today I got my marching orders! The US scientists and the Japanese scientists in charge of the Astro-E2 mission met here last week to finalize the list of objects that I’ll be looking at once I get into space. It’s a combination of objects that were proposed by American astronomers and by Japanese astronomers separately. The meeting last week was to sort out what to do if two astronomers from separate countries had proposed to look at the same object. They decide whether just one astronomer should have the data, or whether the two astronomers should work on it together.

Here’s a link to the list. It gives the name of the object, its location in the sky (by Right Ascension and Declination), the length of the observation (in thousands of seconds), the number of observations, and the name of the astronomer who proposed to look at it. First item on the list is the Andromeda Galaxy! Unfortunately, I have to wait about 7 months after launch before I start looking at these. But I’ll have enough to do in those first 7 months.

Don’t forget that American students can also propose objects for me to look at.

I’m going to go take a nap.

Well, I’m pretty bummed out today. I just found out that my launch has been delayed until next summer, instead of at the beginning of the year. Everyone is disappointed, but there is one good thing that comes out of this — we don’t have to work straight through Christmas!

So this will mean more waiting, but it does give us all more time to get ready for launch. And maybe more time for karaoke, too!