Editing INTEGRAL (section)

==Mission==
Radiation more energetic than optical light, such as ultraviolet, [[X-rays]], and  [[gamma rays]], cannot penetrate Earth's atmosphere, and direct observations must be made from space. INTEGRAL is an observatory, scientists can propose for observing time of their desired target regions, data are public after a proprietary period of up to one year.

INTEGRAL was launched from the Russian [[Baikonur]] spaceport, in [[Kazakhstan]].  The 2002 launch aboard a [[Proton rocket|Proton]]-DM2 rocket achieved a 3-day elliptical orbit with an apogee of nearly 160,000&nbsp;km and a [[perigee]] of above 2,000&nbsp;km, hence mostly beyond radiation belts which would otherwise lead to high instrumental backgrounds from charged-particle activation. The spacecraft and instruments are controlled from [[ESOC]] in [[Darmstadt]], Germany, ESA's control centre, through ground stations in Belgium ([[Redu Station|Redu]]) and California ([[Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex|Goldstone]]).

2015: Fuel usage is much lower than predictions. INTEGRAL has far exceeded its 2+3-year planned lifetime, and is set to enter Earth atmosphere in 2029 as a definite end of the mission. Its orbit was adjusted in Jan/Feb 2015 to cause such a safe (southern) reentry (due to lunar/solar perturbations, predicted for 2029), using half the remaining fuel then.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ugo|first=Kuulkers, Erik Ferrigno, Carlo Kretschmar, Peter Alfonso-Garzon, Julia Baab, Marius Bazzano, Angela Belanger, Guillaume Benson, Ian Bird, Anthony J. Bozzo, Enrico Brandt, Soren Coe, Elliott Caballero, Isabel Cangemi, Floriane Chenevez, Jerome Cenko, Bradley Cinar, Nebil Coleiro, Alexis De Padova, Stefano Diehl, Roland Dietze, Claudia Domingo, Albert Drapes, Mark D'uva, Eleonora Ehle, Matthias Ebrero, Jacobo Edirimanne, Mithrajith Eismont, Natan A. Finn, Timothy Fiocchi, Mariateresa Tomas, Elena Garcia Gaudenzi, Gianluca Godard, Thomas Goldwurm, Andrea Gotz, Diego Gouiffes, Christian Grebenev, Sergei A. Greiner, Jochen Gros, Aleksandra Hanlon, Lorraine Hermsen, Wim Hernandez, Cristina Hernanz, Margarita Huebner, Jutta Jourdain, Elisabeth La Rosa, Giovanni Labanti, Claudio Laurent, Philippe Lehanka, Alexander Lund, Niels Madison, James Malzac, Julien Martin, Jim Mas-Hesse, J. Miguel McBreen, Brian McDonald, Alastair McEnery, Julie Mereghetti, Sandro Natalucci, Lorenzo Ness, Jan-Uwe Oxborrow, Carol Anne Palmer, John Peschke, Sibylle Petrucciani, Francesco Pfeil, Norbert Reichenbaecher, Michael Rodi, James Rodriguez, Jerome Roques, Jean-Pierre Donate, Emilio Salazar Salt, Dave Sanchez-Fernandez, Celia Sauvageon, Aymeric Savchenko, Volodymyr Sazonov, Sergey Yu. Scaglioni, Stefano Schartel, Norbert Siegert, Thomas Southworth, Richard Sunyaev, Rashid A. Toma, Liviu Ubertini, Pietro Heuvel, Ed P. J. van den von Kienlin, Andreas von Krusenstiern, Nikolai Winkler, Christoph Wojciech, Hajdas Zannoni|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1262720738|title=INTEGRAL reloaded: spacecraft, instruments and ground system|date=2021-06-23|oclc=1262720738}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Huebner|first1=Jutta M.|last2=Southworth|first2=Richard T.|last3=Salt|first3=David J.|last4=Dietze|first4=Claudia|last5=McDonald|first5=Alastair|last6=Merz|first6=Klaus|last7=Ziegler|first7=Gerald|title=SpaceOps 2016 Conference |chapter=Clean-up your space: INTEGRAL low cost end-of-life disposal |date=2016-05-13|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2016-2359 |location=Reston, Virginia|publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics|doi=10.2514/6.2016-2359|isbn=978-1-62410-426-8}}</ref>

In July 2020 INTEGRAL put itself in safe-mode, and it seemed the thrusters had failed. Since then alternative algorithms to slew and unload the [[reaction wheel]]s have been developed and tested.<ref name=SD_2021>[https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Rescuing_Integral_No_thrust_No_problem_999.html "Rescuing Integral: No thrust? No problem" July 2021]</ref>

In September 2021 a [[single event upset]] triggered a sequence of events that put INTEGRAL into an uncontrolled tumbling state, considered to be a 'mission critical anomaly'. The operations team used the reaction wheels to recover attitude control.<ref name="esa-20211018">{{cite web |url=https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Three_hours_to_save_Integral |title=Three hours to save Integral |work=ESA |date=18 October 2021 |access-date=19 October 2021}}</ref><ref name="integral-updates">{{cite web |url=https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/integral |title=Integral Latest News |work=ESA |date=1 October 2021 |access-date=19 October 2021}}</ref>

In March 2023, INTEGRAL science operations were extended to the end of 2024, which will be followed by a two-year post-operations phase and further monitoring of the spacecraft until its estimated reentry in February 2029.<ref name="esa-20230307">{{cite web |url=https://sci.esa.int/web/director-desk/-/extended-life-for-esa-s-science-missions |title=Extended life for ESA's science missions |work=[[ESA]] |date=7 March 2023 |access-date=20 March 2023}}</ref>

Also in March 2023, a new software based safe mode was tested that would use reaction wheels (rather than the failed thrusters).<ref>[https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Integral_safe_at_last_999.html ''Integral safe at last'']</ref>

On 28 February 2025, science observations with the INTEGRAL spacecraft were officially ended.<ref>[https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mission_accomplished_for_Integral_ESAs_gamma_ray_telescope_999.html Mission accomplished for Integral, ESA's gamma-ray telescope]</ref>