General

With the final activities for the Digital Ion Driftmeter commissioning on July 29, 2000 the technical commissioning of the CHAMP spacecraft and all science instruments could be completed within the planned period of two weeks. The excellent support by the NASA polar station network has undoubtedly accelerated the commissioning process.

Since July 30, 2000 mission operations with groundstations Weilheim and Neustrelitz are under exclusive control of the team of the German Space Operations Center. At this time the accomodation-, calibration- and validation- phase of the science instruments and processing systems has started. This phase will last some months.

After the final CHAMP status review meeting with the complete LEOP team on July 28, 2000 the following was stated: the CHAMP satellite, all subsystems and all science instruments perform nominally. As of today there are no obstacles to a 5 years mission duration.

Reports about the CHAMP accomodation-, calibration- and validation- phase will be given on the CHAMP webpages. The publication of bulletins will be discontinued right away.

signed:
Christoph Reigber
CHAMP Project Director
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam

signed:
Peter Mühlbauer
CHAMP Mission Operations Director
German Space Operations Center of the DLR