NICER

Launch data: Designation  17030 Launch date  03 June 2017 Launch site  CCK, LC-39A Launch vehicle  Falcon-9 v1.2 Mission  Astronomy, X-ray Launch platform  ISS Kibo, LEO Deployment date   Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Inclination   ° Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• NICER, also known as NICER/SEXTANT (Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology), is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to the study of the extraordinary gravitational, electromagnetic, and nuclear-physics environments embodied by neutron stars. NICER will explore the exotic states of matter inside these stars, where density and pressure are higher than in atomic nuclei, confronting theory with unique observational constraints. NICER will enable rotation-resolved spectroscopy of the thermal and non-thermal emissions of neutron stars in the soft (0.2-12 keV) X-ray band with unprecedented sensitivity, probing interior structure, the origins of dynamic phenomena, and the mechanisms that underlie the most powerful cosmic particle accelerators known.
• After launch and berthing to the ISS, NICER will be moved from the Dragon CRS-12 trunk to the ELC 2 platform.