In-flight performance and observations of the high-energy HERMES payload onboard SpIRIT and HERMES-PF

Le résumé fourni par la source

The Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) mission is a 6U CubeSat developed through collaboration between Australia and Italy for high-energy astrophysics. The 6U CubeSat carries an actively cooled detector system in a Sun-Synchronous orbit. This payload is a compact X-ray and gamma-ray instrument identical to the six units developed by INAF for the Italian Space Agency's HERMES Pathfinder mission. It is designed to detect and locate high-energy transients such as GRBs. SpIRIT was successfully launched on December 1, 2023, aboard a SpaceX Falcon~9, and payload commissioning has been completed. Since October 2025, SpIRIT has been operating in standard Observation mode, with short daily activations and on-board data storage. This paper presents an overview of the orbital operations of the SpIRIT scientific payload, focusing on in-flight calibration activities, scientific observations, and the first-light results of the HERMES-PF mission.

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