Space cryogenics from 1970 to 2010

While space-related cryogenic engineering in the 1950s and 1960s was primarily concerned with liquid fueled rocket fuel supply systems, the leading edge of technology development moved in the 1970s to the supply of 1.4-70 K cooling facilities for IR and gamma-ray astronomy instruments. Attention is presently given to the development history, current status, and future prospects for superfluid He cryocooling systems, in view of prospective requirements for micro-K cooling capacities over astronomical instrument service lives of the order of 10 years. The spacecraft in question will be launched in the mid-to-late 1990s and encompass the Advanced X-ray Astronomy facility, the Gyro Test of General Relativity, the Space IR Telescope Facility, Astromag, and the Submillimeter Explorer.