TAUVEX: status in 2011

TL;DR

TAUVEX is a long-standing ultraviolet space telescope project with a complex history of development and deployment delays, reflecting challenges in international support and launch opportunities for space astronomy missions.

Contribution

This paper provides a comprehensive update on TAUVEX's status as of 2011, highlighting its historical development, support issues, and current storage situation.

Findings

TAUVEX was conceived in 1985 and selected as Israel's first priority payload in 1989.

The project faced multiple launch delays and platform changes, including a failed launch on GSAT-4 in 2010.

As of 2011, TAUVEX remains stored in India with no confirmed launch plans.

Abstract

We present a short history of the TAUVEX instrument, conceived to provide multi-band wide-field imaging in the ultraviolet, emphasizing the lack of sufficient and aggressive support on the part of the different space agencies that dealt with this basic science mission. First conceived in 1985 and selected by the Israel Space Agency in 1989 as its first priority payload, TAUVEX is fast becoming one of the longest-living space project of space astronomy. After being denied a launch on a national Israeli satellite, and then not flying on the Spectrum X-Gamma (SRG) international observatory, it was manifested since 2003 as part of ISRO's GSAT-4 Indian satellite to be launched in the late 2000s. However, two months before the launch, in February 2010, it was dismounted from its agreed-upon platform. This proved to be beneficial, since GSAT-4 and its launcher were lost on April 15 2010 due to the failure of the carrier rocket's 3rd stage. TAUVEX is now stored in ISRO's clean room in Bangalore with no firm indications when or on what platform it might be launched.