INTEGRAL

INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory

Mission Profile

INTEGRAL (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) is an ESA gamma-ray space observatory launched on 17 October 2002 aboard a Proton-K to a highly eccentric orbit allowing it to observe above Earth's radiation belts for most of each 72-hour orbit. Its suite of instruments — IBIS, SPI, JEM-X, and OMC — provide simultaneous observations from optical through hard X-ray to gamma-ray energies, making it uniquely capable of studying the most energetic processes in the universe including black hole accretion, neutron star binaries, supernova remnants, and gamma-ray bursts. Over two decades of operation, INTEGRAL has created the most detailed all-sky map of gamma-ray emission and contributed to the discovery of hundreds of new high-energy sources. The mission was deorbited in February 2025 after 22 years of operation.