China’s x-ray satellite runs into funding trouble
OCT 01, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023727
Science : After spending nearly 2 decades developing China’s first space-based observatory, Li Tipei now fears that the project may never get off the ground.
The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) mission is scheduled for launch next year, but with the clock running down, Science has learned that no government agency has stepped forward to pay the estimated US$146 million to build the satelliteâmdash;putting the mission in jeopardy.
“It would be a shame for the Chinese scientific community if the project dies prematurely,” says Li, an astrophysicist and chief mission scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) and Tsinghua University .
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
