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NICER Mission Timeline

Current Activity

Please see Upcoming and recent past pointings for up-to-date NICER observation scheduling.




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

  • NICER Cycle 5 Accepted Proposals and Targets Now Available (24 Dec 2022)
    The NICER mission is pleased to announce that the proposal selection process for Cycle 5 of the Guest Observer program is complete, with observations scheduled to begin no later than March 1, 2023. Documents listing selected proposals and approved targets have been posted to the HEASARC's NICER Proposals Page.
  • NICER XTI CALDB Updated (31 Oct 2022)
    The NICER XTI caldb has been updated to version 20221001. This version updates the detector gain, response and includes new background files.
  • OHMAN Monitoring Service Has Started (25 Oct 2022)
    The "OHMAN" (Orbiting High-energy Monitor Alert Network) X-ray follow-up observation program began operation on August 10, 2022. OHMAN uses JAXA's MAXI all-sky monitor to detect sudden X-ray bursts and to automatically notify NASA's NICER sensitive X-ray telescope for immediate followup. The first coordinated observation was successfully completed on September 13, 2022.
  • 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.

[More NICER News]