Ariel V was launched into a low inclination (2.8 degrees) orbit from the San Marco launch platform in the Indian Ocean on 15 October 1974. The mission was a British-USA collaboration. The Science Research Council managed the project for the UK and GSFC/NASA for the USA. Ariel V was dedicated to monitoring the X-ray sky with a comprehensive payload. The mission ended in the spring of 1980.

Mission Characteristics

Lifetime:

Energy Range: 0.3-40 keV

Payload:

Experiments aligned with the spin axis.

• Rotation Modulation Collimator (RMC) (0.3-30 keV).
• High resolution proportional counter spectrometer.
• Polarimeter/spectrometer.
• Scintillation telescope.
• All-Sky Monitor (ASM) a small (~1 cm²) pinhole camera (3-6 keV).
• Sky Survey Instrument (SSI) composite of two proportional counters with 290 cm² effective area each (1.5-20 keV).

Science Highlights:

• Long-term monitoring of numerous X-ray sources.
• Discovery of several long period (minutes) X-ray pulsars.
• Discovery of several bright X-ray transients probably containing a Black Hole (e.g. A0620-00=Nova Mon 1975).
• Establishing that Seyfert I galaxies (AGN) are a class of X-ray emitters.
• Discovery of iron line emission in extragalactic sources.

Archive: HEASARC hosts lightcurves from the ASM and the Raw data and the 3rd Ariel V catalog from the SSI.
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