Astron

Mission Profile

Astron was a Soviet astrophysics satellite launched on 23 March 1983 aboard a Proton-K/D-1 into a highly eccentric orbit, carrying the world's largest ultraviolet telescope — the 80 cm aperture Spika UV spectrometer — developed in cooperation with France. Operating at wavelengths between 110 and 350 nm from its high-apogee orbit that provided long uninterrupted views above Earth's UV-absorbing atmosphere, Astron observed stellar chromospheres, novae, supernovae remnants, and active galactic nuclei. The mission achieved particularly notable results studying the spectrum of Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud and provided detailed UV spectroscopy of quasars and Seyfert galaxies. Astron operated for approximately six years before the satellite was decommissioned.