The official opening of the ASTRA (formerly SOLABS) beamline was held on June 29th at the SOLARIS Centre in Kraków. The ceremony was attended by the number of distinguished guests, includig dr Michael Groß, Consul General of Germany, dr Thomas Grünewald, Rector of Hochschule Niederrhein, prof. Marek Stankiewicz, Director of the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS, Prof. Saroj Rujirawatprof, Director of the Synchrotron Light Research Institute (remotely). Stanisław Kistryn from the Jagiellonian University, prof. Alexander Prange from Hochschule Niederrhein and prof. Josef Hormes from the University of Bonn.
The beamline has been developed by 4 institutions: Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Synchrotron Light Research Institute (Thailand), Institute of Physics at Bonn University (Germany), and the SOLARIS Centre. It is ready to welcome first users in September.