Status Message, January 28, 2002 


Dear Colleagues,

On Thursday January 24, the mission operations team uploaded new flight
software constructed by Orbital Sciences Corporation.  This software
provides control about three othogonal axes using the roll wheel, the
skew wheel and magnetic torquer bars.  The satellite is now in the fine
pointing mode.  Our first data, for a star near the orbit pole, shows
sub arcsecond jitter. The first spectrum was obtained Friday night and a
quick look at the LiF 1 channel data shows no obvious signs of
photometric degradation.

The satellite has been operating autonomously since Friday evening.  We
are operating near the north pole of the orbit, but plan to extend the
region of operation down to 30 degrees from the pole over the month of
February.  As the orbit is tilted at 25 degrees and precesses with a 60
day period, we expect to be able to access targets with declinations
greater +35 degrees or less than -35 degrees when we return to science
operations March 1.  More than two-thirds of the FUSE observing programs
have accessible targets.  Over the following months, we plan to extend
the satellite capabilities and sky coverage.

The above paragraph is based on modeling and our first test results.  In
late February, after we have done a more thorough evaluation, we will
write to you with a more detailed description of the satellite's near
term capabilities.

We close with a word of praise for the Orbital team and the operations
team at JHU.  It is their ingenious ideas and long hours over the
last seven weeks that have made this prompt recovery possible.

Warren Moos and George Sonneborn




The FUSE Project is managed by Johns Hopkins University's Center for 
Astrophysical Sciences in Baltimore, MD, for NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center.  The FUSE Principal Investigator is Dr. Warren Moos, the FUSE Project 
Manager at JHU is Mr. J.B. Joyce, and the NASA Project Scientist for FUSE 
is Dr. George Sonneborn.