DXL: a sounding rocket mission for the study of solar wind charge exchange and local hot bubble X-ray emission

The Diffuse X-rays from the Local galaxy (DXL) mission is an approved sounding rocket project with a first launch scheduled around December 2012. Its goal is to identify and separate the X-ray emission generated by solar wind charge exchange from that of the local hot bubble to improve our understanding of both. With 1,000 cm(2) proportional counters and grasp of about 10 cm(2) sr both in the 1/4 and 3/4 keV bands, DXL will achieve in a 5-min flight what cannot be achieved by current and future X-ray satellites.