The WSO-UV space telescope operation from UCM

Abstract

The World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) is a space telescope built to guarantee access to the ultraviolet range (1150Å-3500Å) in the post Hubble Space Telescope (HST) epoch. WSO-UV is an international endeavor led by the Russian Federal Agency, ROSCOSMOS. WSO-UV is a medium size scientific mission with a telescope of 170 cm primary diameter. The telescope is equipped with instrumentation for astronomical imaging and spectroscopy. WSO-UV will be in a geosynchronous orbit ideally suited for monitoring programs and the observation of weak UV sources. Its expected lifetime is 5+5 years with foreseen launch date September 2015. The WSO-UV Ground Segment is comprised of all the infrastructure and facilities involved in the preparation and execution of the WSO-UV mission operations, which typically encompass real-time monitoring and control of the spacecraft, telescope and instruments as well as reception, processing and storage of the scientific data. The Ground Segment is being developed by Spain in collaboration with Russia within a consortium that involves Academia (the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INASAN)) and industry (GMV and Lavochkin Association) in both countries. Industry is developing, for some components jointly with Academia, the ground segment components that are defined and will be used by the Academic partners. The Academia will have a major involvement in the mission infrastructure development and operations. The Academia partners will also handle the interaction with the international scientific community and the creation of the Scientific Archive. In this contribution, the characteristics of this Russian- Spanish collaboration to jointly operate the WSO-UV space telescope from the academic environment will be described, including the cooperation between Academia and Industry.