TO: EVN Directors FROM: H. Hirabayashi and P.G. Edwards SUBJECT: VSOP/VSOP-2 Report to the EVN CBD meeting DATE: 20 November 2005 1. END OF HALCA OPERATIONS The end of HALCA operations has been approved within JAXA and at the higher level Space Activities Commission, and publicly announced. The final HALCA tracking pass is scheduled for November 30th. The VSOP mission (as distinct from HALCA operations) will continue until the end of the fiscal year for the wrap up of the 17 year mission program, which started in 1989. The first issue of Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan for next year will be a special issue devoted to VSOP related papers. 2. IAA AWARD TO VSOP TEAM The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) awarded its Laurels for Team Achievement Award for 2005 to the VSOP Team. The award was presented at the 56th International Astronautical Congress in Fukuoka, Japan, on October 16th. The award is a tribute to the efforts of entire VSOP team, including many colleagues at EVN observatories, who made it possible to realise a radio telescope bigger than the earth. Leonid Gurvits, representing Europe, attended the award ceremony. 3. VSOP-2 An ISAS/ESA meeting was held at ISAS on September 1-2 and a presentation on VSOP-2 planning and possible collaboration with ESA was given by Hirax. ESA delegation members were D. Southwood, G. Cavallo, Jan van Casteren, S. Volonte and H. Opgenoorth. The VSOP-2 proposal was one of three submitted to ISAS in September 2005. The evaluation sub-committee of the Science Steering Committee met for the first time on November 15th to start the process of deciding between VSOP-2 and the X-ray mission NeXT. A decision will then be made within ISAS between the selected science mission and the Solar Sail engineering mission. The call for proposals stipulated a launch on the ISAS M-V rocket. If there are no delays in funding requests, launch could be as early as the 2011 April -- 2012 March fiscal year. The successful mission will be decided by early next year. An abridged English version of the VSOP-2 proposal is available from the VSOP-2 website (http://www.vsop.isas.jaxa.jp/vsop2/). A VSOP-2 meeting was also held during the URSI General Assembly in New Delhi in October. 4. VSOP MOVIE A 30 minute video describing the VSOP project has been completed for ISAS. The video includes scenes and interviews filmed at JPL, Green Bank, JIVE and Westerbork, and we thank those involved for their cooperation. An English version of the video has been produced as a DVD (in NTSC format) and is being distributed to all mission elements, including all EVN telescopes which participated in the mission, and PIs. Additional copies are available on request. --------------------------------------------------------------------------