Future perspectives

• the further development and astronomical exploitation of the superconducting photon-counting detector;
• continued scientific output from the LECS and COMPTEL instruments on SAX and CGRO, respectively;
• the exploitation of Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogue data;
• observational astronomy using ground- and space-based facilities;
• data archiving;
• continued preparation for the XMM and INTEGRAL missions;
• the build-up of and participation in the Planck and FIRST missions;
• long-term study activity on Darwin and GAIA for a potential Cornerstone mission in Horizon 2000 Plus;
• continued ISO operations and the post-operations phase for scientific exploitation and the work towards the ISO data archive;
• continued operations and scientific exploitation of HST after the insertion of the new STIS and NICMOS instruments in February 1997.