NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Now that the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is up in space, where does the data go? As of last week, it started flowing to SLAC's GLAST Instrument Science Operations Center (ISOC) via a link from the satellite to a ground station and a mission operations center at NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, Md. At SLAC, the data is being monitored, processed and distributed to the rest of the science team worldwide.

Beginning last Wednesday, the ISOC team excitedly watched power being turned to the electronics systems of the Large Area Telescope (LAT). One by one, they fed power to the 16 towers of silicon detector strips until all were switched on and responding as expected. (Or as they say in NASA vernacular, "nominally.")

ISOC manager Rob Cameron from SLAC said, "Everything went faster and smoother than we expected—it's going great." In the GLAST mission support room in Building 84, ISOC team members monitor data coming from the LAT, and work to configure, tune, and calibrate the instrument to ensure they get the very best data possible for the upcoming science mission.

Peter Michelson, of Stanford University, spokesperson and principal investigator for the LAT collaboration, said, "We're off to a great start and we're looking forward to a new view of our universe once science operations begin."

Approximately 30 LAT collaboration members from around the world are currently visiting SLAC to assist in the commissioning phase to bring the LAT to its mission-ready performance, meeting daily in the KIPAC auditorium.

Eduardo do Couto e Silva, a deputy manager of the ISOC at SLAC, said, "We can't wait to see the gamma-ray sky through GLAST 'eyes' and to share with the world what we find in the months and years ahead."

David Harris