Mock-up of the XMM-Newton at the Cité de l'espace, Toulouse
|Launch date||10 December 1999| |Launched from||Guiana Space
Centre, Kourou, French Guiana, South America| |Launch
vehicle||Ariane 5| |Mission length||13 years, 4 months, and 20
days elapsed| |Type of orbit||Elliptical| |Orbit height||7,000
to 114,000 km| |Orbit period||48 hours| |Collecting area||4300
cm² (three mirror-assemblies of 1400 cm² each)| |Focal
length||7.5 m| Originally known as the High Throughput X-ray
Spectroscopy Mission it was placed in a very eccentric 48 hour
elliptical orbit at 40°; at its apogee it is nearly 114,000
kilometres (71,000 mi) from Earth, while the perigee is only
7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) The satellite weighs 3,800 kilograms
(8,400 lb), is 10 metres (33 ft) long and 16 metres (52 ft) in
span with its solar arrays deployed. It holds three X-ray
telescopes, developed by Media Lario of Italy, each of which
contains 58 Wolter-type concentric mirrors. The combined
collecting area is 4,300 cm². The three European Photon