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The European Retrievable Carrier mission : EURECA

artist concept of Eureca

The European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) was launched 31 July 1992 by the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and put into an orbit at an altitude of 508 km. It began its scientific mission on 7 August 1992. EURECA was retrieved on 1 July 1993 by the Space Shuttle Endeavor and returned to Earth. The satellite carried a number of experiments for microgravity studies, solar observations, and material technology investigations. Also on board was the WATCH or Wide Angle Telescope for Cosmic Hard X-rays instrument.

Mission Characteristics

Lifetime
7 Aug 1992–1 July 1993
Special Features
During its 11 month lifetime, EURECA tracked the Sun and while the WATCH instrument gradually scanned across the entire sky.

Payload

Wide Angle Telescope for Cosmic Hard x-rays instrument (WATCH)

Energy Range
6–150 keV
Effective Area
45 cm2
Field of View
65°
Sensitivity
100 mCrab in one day
Time Resolution
64 µs
The WATCH instrument was developed at the Danish Space Research Institute and also flown on the Russian Granat mission. WATCH is a wide field monitor based on the Rotation Modulation Collimator principle. There were 2 interleaved detectors which created a phoswich of alternating strips of NaI(Tl) and CsI(Na). Each strip was 5 mm wide by 2 mm thick The diameter of the phoswich was 110 mm and it was viewed across a 10 mm air gap by a single 125 mm photomultiplier. The effective observation time for the 318 day mission was 120 days.

Science Highlights

  • Some 2 dozen known X-ray sources were monitored — some for more than 100 days
  • Discovered a number of new X-ray transients
  • Nineteen cosmic gamma-ray bursts were detected by WATCH, with 12 of these being localized to within ∼1°.

Gallery Publications