ESA Science & Technology - ATHENA technical and programmatic review report

Publication date: 28 February 2012

Copyright: ESA

Reference: SRE-PA/2011/117

L1 Mission Reformulation, ATHENA

This report summarises the findings of the ESA review on the reformulation of IXO, the International X-ray Observatory (L class mission candidate of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme), into the new mission concept named ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics).

The review, completed at the end of the reformulation exercise, establishes the overall feasibility and credibility of the L1 mission candidate reformulated concept - for both platform and payload - for a launch in 2022, and an ESA cost at completion of 850 MEuro (e.c. 2010).