Progress and status of the mission in China Shuang-Nan Zhang(张双南) zhangsn@ihep.ac.cn Division for Particle Astrophysics Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) Chinese Academy of Sciences

CAS background study 2011-2015: concluded and highly appraised by the review committee: Important science with very active international cooperation and will be highly recognized internationally TRL: SFA & PFA (5), all others including LAD & WFM (6)

CNSA visit to ASI Sept. 2016: CNSA delegation led by Vice-President WU Yanhua, including Deputy Director of System Engineering Department, ZHAO Jian, in charge of international cooperation projects One general meeting with ASI president, and two dedicated side meetings on eXTP with ASI Chief Scientists For the first time, eXTP was recognized as a potential flagship space science mission of CNSA: China-led with strong and multi-national participations

eXTP briefing to CNSA On 2018 Jan. 18, CNSA called a briefing meeting of eXTP: eXTP payload and satellite teams reported on eXTP status ZHAO Jian announced that this meeting marks the kick-off of CNSA mission study of eXTP, and asked CAST to set-up a dedicated working team to promote eXTP ZHAO Jian outlined his goals at the Feb. eXTP Rome meeting.

Feb. Rome eXTP meeting ZHAO Jian announced CNSA’s preliminary plan on eXTP Broad international participation and launch around 2024 ZHAO Jian met with ASI President R. Battiston and ESA observer A. Parmar, as well as national representatives of eXTP consortium Invited ASI, ESA and its member states to join eXTP mission study

Post-Rome meeting progress Extensive summary of Rome meeting was delivered to CNSA CNSA top leaders made high remarks on eXTP and instructed all involved to speed up the eXTP study and selection progress CNSA sent formal invitation letter to ESA for joining eXTP mission study ESA high level delegation to China next month: eXTP may be on the agenda

CAS situation 13th five-year (2016-2020) budget on space science approved Some funding available for selecting unspecified number of large missions for launch before 2025: eXTP remains a very strong candidate 2017-02-22: Briefing to CAS management on eXTP: strong interest on eXTP confirmed 2017-03-22: To report to CAS vice-president: CAS-CNSA coordination on eXTP expected