The HIPPARCOS Input Catalogue - a Progress Report from an Astrometric Point of View

Abstract

The construction of the Hipparcos satellite is proceeding according to the schedule and should be finished in March 1988. But, due to some problems with the Ariane European booster, the launch has now been postponed until 1989. In practice, this means that the astronomical community may expect delivery of the final Hipparcos Catalog only in 1995. At the present time, it can be stated that all results of the tests and simulations on the various subsystems have confirmed the expected precisions of 2 mas/year for stars brighter than V = 9. For stars with V = 12, the precision is degraded by a factor 2, or worse if the next solar maximum occurring during the 2.5 year mission proves exceptionally active.