The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), launched on June 24, 1999, covers the 905-1187 Å spectral region and will obtain high resolution spectra of hot and cool stars, AGNs, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, solar system objects as well as perform detailed studies of the interstellar medium. FUSE will be able to observe sources 10 000 times fainter than Copernicus, an early FUV mission, and has superior resolving power than the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) and the Berkeley Spectrograph (BEFS) and the Tübingen Echelle Spectrograph (TUES) of the Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometers (ORFEUS). FUSE was planned for a 3 year lifetime with funding for an additional 2 years expected.
The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) was the spectropolarimetry component of the three ASTRO instruments that flew on Space Shuttle missions in December 1990 and March 1995. A halfwave spectropolarimeter provided medium resolution spectropolarimetry for research into the interstellar medium, hot stars, stars with circumstellar material, interacting binary stars, novae, solar system objects, and active galaxies. A Lyot analyzer obtained low resolution observations of faint targets, but due to calibration problems did not produce scientifically useful data. The WUPPE instrument provides a unique data set, one of the few providing polarimetric data in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum.
