The U.K. wide field camera on ROSAT — First results

Abstract The successful launch of ROSAT on 1 June 1990, from Cape Canaveral in Florida on NASA Delta II rocket, represented the culmination of years of dedicated effort by scientific and technical teams from West Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the first month since launch all essential spacecraft and payload subsystems have been checked out and shown to be working. First in-orbit data from the UK Wide Field Camera (WFC) are reviewed following a brief history of UK involvement in ROSAT and a description of the WFC instrumentation.