The Enhanced X-Ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission: eXTP

This chapter presents the main aspects of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission, a flagship observatory designed to perform simultaneous X-ray timing–spectral–polarimetry observations of celestial sources. The mission is also designed to be a powerful multi-purpose X-ray observatory. The observatory will continuously monitor the X-ray sky and will enable multiwavelength and multi-messenger studies on a variety of sources. The mission is currently developed by a Sino-European Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The chapter summarizes the scientific requirements of the mission and describes its scientific payload, the mission configuration profile, and the main programmatic aspects.