Micro-X Sounding Rocket: 1st Flight Performance and Future Prospects

The Micro-X Microcalorimeter X-Ray Imaging Rocket is a sounding rocket mission that launched on July 22, 2018. This was the first operation of high resolution Transition Edge Sensors in space, opening up sensitivity to new physics. Micro-X is designed to observe Supernova Remnants and BSM X-ray interactions, like those proposed from keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter. I will present the engineering results of the first flight, with special emphasis on the successful performance of the cryostat and electronics within the challenging conditions of a sounding rocket flight. While a rocket pointing error led to minimal time on-target, the science instrument operated as expected, and data from this flight will be used to establish background flux limits and as calibration data in preparation for future flights. The rocket will re-fly in the fall of 2019 to observe the CasA SNR, after which modifications will be made to the payload to optimize it for a keV dark matter search.