Launch of the world’s first soft X-ray satellite with ‘Lobster-Eye’ imaging technology

The ‘Lobster-Eye X-ray Satellite’ was successfully launched on July 25 into orbit from the Taiyuan Launch Center, with the first signal received, riding the Long March 4B lift rocket. The Lobster-Eye X-ray Satellite project is co-led by Nanjing University (NJU), the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) of The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the 508 Institute of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and Shanghai ASES Spaceflight Technology Co.Ltd. also under the 805 Institute of the Eighth Academy of CASC. It was successfully developed through five years of joint effort by the above outstanding teams. The satellite is equipped with an internally developed ‘Lobster-Eye’ focused X-ray detector and a small high-precision payload platform. During the satellite’s long-term orbit operations, it will verify the ultra-large X-ray field-of-view within the X-ray energy regime and complete several important space X-ray detection experiments. This includes carrying out dark matter signal detection research within the X-ray energy regime in an earth orbit environment.

Source:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-world-soft-x-ray-satellite-lobster-eye.html