Supplemental Call for Proposals for HST Cycle 16 Observations

NASA and The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) announce a Supplemental Call for Observing Proposals for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Participation in this program is open to all categories of organizations, both domestic and foreign, including educational institutions, profit and nonprofit organizations, NASA Centers, and other Government agencies.

A serious electronic malfunction on HST in late September led to the postponement of Servicing Mission 4 (SM4). HST has been restored to operations, and we anticipate exhausting the pool of both existing Cycle 16 programs and Cycle 17 observations that can be brought forward before SM4 occurs. We are therefore issuing this call for supplementary programs using Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), the Advanced Camera for Surveys Solar Blind Channel (ACS/SBC), the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) to ensure that HST remains fully productive scientifically over this period.

This solicitation for proposals will be open through Monday December 8, 2008 11:59pm EST. The Astronomer’s Proposal Tools (APT) version 17.2.6, which is required for Phase I Proposal Submission, will be released on Monday November 17, 2008 and can be downloaded from: http://www.stsci.edu/hst/proposing/apt. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by members of the Cycle 16 & 17 Time Allocation Committees. Results of the selection will be announced no later than January 13, 2009.

We anticipate allocating 1,000 to 1,200 orbits for an SM4 launch in the April/May timeframe. If SM4 is scheduled at a later date, the allocation will be increased accordingly.

Full details are given at this web site: http://www.stsci.edu/hst/proposing/docs/cycle16supplement