Timelines and Mission Information


Post-Launch Timeline

  • September 6, 2023 XRISM was launched successfully from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 23:42 UT Wednesday, September 6 (8:42 a.m on September 7, 2023 JST).
  • September 7, 2023 JAXA announced that completion of the sun acquisition control and deployment of the solar arrays for XRISM.
  • September 8, 2023 During the launch of XRISM, the vent port of the helium cryostat was successfully opened to permit cooling of the liquid helium to the operational temperture of < 1.3K. The cryocoolers have been turned on after releasing the launch locks that protect the cryocoolers during launch. The internal dewar components will now begin to come into thermal equilibrium.

  • September 2023 - December 2023/January 2024: Checkout and initial calibration phase.
  • September 11, 2023 The end of the critical operation period and the start of commissioning for XRISM. JAXA announced the end of the critical operation period, which is the period after the separation of the satellite from the launch vehicle until the satellite can maintain a stable and safe condition. XRISM has entered the commissioning period, which will last about three months to verify the functions of the satellite's onboard equipment.
  • September 11, 2023 The electronics boxes for the Resolve instrument have been powered ON. The XBOX is providing readout of the anticoincidence detector and providing data on the particle background, and the ADRC is reporting tempetures throughout the dewar. The XBOX will be used later in the mission to provide readout of the X-ray calorimeter array while the ADRC will be used to control the magnetic refrigerators to reach the 0.050K operational temperature of the array. The spacecraft electronics are now controlling the temperatures of the two X-Ray Mirror Assemblies.
  • October 10, 2023 After reaching the required operational temperature in the Resolve dewar, the adiabatic demagnetization magnetic refrigerators (ADR) were activated, and the target temperature of 0.050 K for the array stage was achieved.
  • October 17, 2023 The Resolve dewar has now been cooled with all cryocoolers and the 1st and 2nd stage ADRs. The temperatures and cooling powers are all nominal. The full array of detector pixels successfully detected X-rays from the calibration source on the Filter Wheel and shows excellent uniformity, with better than 5 eV energy resolution.
  • October 25, 2023 Xtend SXI has been successfully turned on. The four CCDs have reached the required operational temperatures, and X-rays are being detected from the internal calibration sources. Xtend is expected to begin observing celestial objects soon.
  • October 30, 2023 The Resolve Modulated X-ray Source (MXS) has been activated and is producing X-rays to be used for full array calibration and energy gain monitoring.

  • December 2023/January 2024 - June/July 2024: PV (Performance & Verification) phase - see the target list.
  • July 2024: Start of General Observer (GO) phase.
  • September 2026: End of nominal mission. Start of cryogen free mission.

PV Targets

Pre-Launch Timeline

  • 2017: Initial project study and assessment.
  • 2018: Project kickoff and basic design decision.
  • 2019: Production and testing of instruments and assembly of spacecraft.
  • 2019: Delivered Calorimeter Spectrometer Insert (CSI) for Resolve (Nov 2019) to JAXA from GSFC.
  • 2020: Instrument delivery to Japan, spacecraft assembly, and testing of all flight hardware.
  • Mid 2020: Integration and testing of the Resolve CSI in Japan.
  • Late 2020:Continued integration and testing of integrated XMA at GSFC.
  • Early 2021: PV target list selected and posted above.
  • Fall 2021: XMA scheduled to be delivered to JAXA.
  • Spring 2022: XGS (XRISM Guest Scientist) call released.
  • Aug 2023: Expected launch date from Japan.