NICER Mission Timeline
Current Activity
NICER Enhanced Visibility Calculator
The NICER
Enhanced Visibility Calculator calculates visibilities for targets
over roughly the next 2-week period taking into account ISS orientation and target occultation by ISS structures and other relevant constraints. These visibility intervals are more accurate than visibilities based solely on Sun and Moon avoidance.
Other NICER Activities
Early Post-Launch NICER activities
- July 13 Begin Science Program
- June 21-July 12 Initial calibration and hardware commissioning
- June 17 NICER uses Raster scan of Serpens X-1 to determine X-ray instrument and star tracker alignment
- June 14 NICER is powered up, NICER is deployed, NICER range of motion is verified by robotic camera
- June 12-13 NICER is installed on the ISS ELC2
- June 11 2017 NICER is extracted from the Dragon trunk
Latest News
- 2022 NICER Proposal and Science Workshop, Aug 31-Sep 1 (28 Jul 2022)
In anticipation of the Cycle 5 proposal deadline (Sep 14, 2022). the NICER project will hold a Proposal and Science workshop highlighting the technical and scientific capabilities and strength of the NICER mission. The workshop will be held virtually on August 31st and September 1st, 09:00-11:00 and 14:00-16:00 EDT. Registration is free.
- NICERDAS 9 Released (28 Apr 2022)
NICERDAS version 9, distributed in HEASoft 6.30, includes some NICER-related changes to nicerl2, niprefilter2, nicerarf. Please see the NICERDAS 9 page for details.
- NICER Cycle 4 Budget Proposals Due May 4, 2022 (04 Apr 2022)
The Phase 2 budget proposal deadline for accepted NICER Cycle 4 proposals with recommended observations of Category A or B targets is May 4, 2022 at 4:30pm EDT.
- Keith Gendreau, Zaven Arzoumanian and the NICER Team win the 2022 Rossi Prize (18 Mar 2022)
The 2022 Bruno Rossi Prize has been awarded to Keith Gendreau, Zaven Arzoumanian and the NICER team "for development of the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) and the revolutionary insights it is providing about the extreme environments of neutron stars and black holes, including the first precise and reliable measurement of a pulsar's mass and radius from detailed modeling of its pulsed waveform."
- NICER Cycle 4 Proposal Results (23 Feb 2022)
The result of the recent NICER Cycle 4 review is now available for accepted proposals and accepted targets. Cycle 4 begins March 1, 2022. Note that observations after Sept. 30, 2022 are contingent on Senior Review mission continuation. Also note that the deadline for Cycle 5 proposals (September 7, 2022) is earlier than for previous cycles
[More NICER News]
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