The Swedish auroral microsatellite Astrid-2 is ready for its science mission. The satellite was launched on 10 December 1998 from Plesetsk, Russia, and is now fully operational with all scientific instruments deployed.
Spacecraft attitude is determined by a star imager.
The instrumentation is foreseen to operate more or less continuously throughout the mission whose nominal life time is one year. Scientific collaboration and coordinated measurements are invited. A telemetry station in Antarctica is run by the University of Natal, Durban. The Alfven Laboratory has the overall scientific responsibility of the mission.