TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 930 SUBJECT: HETE Status DATE: 01/02/06 23:47:08 GMT FROM: George Ricker at MIT As of 2 February 2001, the HETE satellite observatory achieved operational status, along with its network of primary ground stations and its Burst Alert Network (BAN). Continued "tuning" of instruments and spacecraft parameters, especially of the aspect system, is anticipated in "engineering time" over the coming months during a few orbits each day, but these activities should not impact HETE's basic operational status. In particular, the HETE Operations Team will strive to provide high "uptime" levels for burst detection during lunar dark periods, beginning with the 20-26 February dark, so as to best support the community of ground-based optical observers. Initially, the localization accuracy of GRB alerts will be checked prior to issuance of GCN Circulars, necessitating a delay of ~ 1 orbital period. Over the next ~1-2 months, we expect to transition to a dissemination time for accurate coordinates of ~minutes. Rapid alerts via the GCN/HETE Notices will be available through the "prompt" options (email, sockets, cell phones or pagers) maintained by the GCN. The initial GCN/HETE Notice will specify only that a candidate event has been detected within the ~1 steradian FOV of the Wide Field X-ray Monitor (WXM) or the Soft X-ray Cameras (SXC). Follow-up GCN/HETE Notices will provide additional localization information, if any, as soon as it can be derived. Ongoing updates and further details are provided by the HETE Mission Operations Team at the official website: http://space.mit.edu/HETE/ George Ricker, MIT Center for Space Research Principal Investigator for the HETE Mission