The BeppoSAX Mission
(1996 - 2002)

SAX was a program of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with participation of the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace programs (NIVR). The mission was supported by a consortium of institutes in Italy together with institutes in the Netherlands , and the Space Science Department of ESA.

The acronym SAX stands for "Satellite per Astronomia X", italian for "X-Ray Astronomy Satellite". SAX was launched on April 30 1996 and renamed BeppoSAX in honor of Giuseppe "Beppo" Occhialini. Due to the poor and degrading spacecraft conditions and to the rapid orbital decay, all in-orbit operations of the BeppoSAX mission ended on April 30 2002. BeppoSAX re-entered on April 29, 2003.

The BeppoSAX U.S. Coordination Facility (USCF) was established at the HEASARC in February 1997 with the main aim to provide a BeppoSAX archive in US. This facility worked closely with the BeppoSAX Science Data Center (SDC) in Rome. In addition, it provided basic support to the US astronomical community for proposal preparation and the exploitation of the SAX data.

What's New in the BeppoSAX Project

This page is intended for members of the scientific community. For members of the general public, or those interested in general astronomy/astrophysics information please go to our Education and Public Outreach site.