This book was conceived to commemorate the continuing success of the
guest observer program for the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE)
satellite observatory. It is also hoped that this volume will serve as a
useful tutorial for those pursuing research in related fields with
future space observatories. As the IUE has been the product of the
three-way collaboration between the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA) and the British
Engineering and Research Council (SERC), so is this book the fruit of
the collaboration of the American and European participants in the IUE.
As such, it is a testimony to timely international cooperation and
sharing of resources that open up new possibilities. The IUE spacecraft
was launched on the 26th of January in 1978 into a geosynchronous orbit
over the Atlantic Ocean. The scientific operations of the IUE are
performed for 16 hours a day from Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A, and for 8 hours a day from ESA Villafranca
Satellite Tracking Station near Madrid, Spain.