THIS REQUEST IS FOR CONTINUATION OF INSTRUMENT TEAM SUPPORT FOR THE REFLECTION GRATING SPECTROMETER (RGS) EXPERIMENT CURRENTLY FLYING ON THE XMM-NEWTON OBSERVATORY. FUNDING FOR THIS EFFORT HAS PREVIOUSLY BEEN PROVIDED THROUGH NASA GRANT NNX13AP89G. COLUMBIA WAS THE LEAD INSTITUTION FOR THE NASA FUNDED PARTICIPATION IN THE DESIGN DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE RGS AND FOR POST-LAUNCH SUPPORT OF CALIBRATION SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND GUARANTEED-TIME DATA ANALYSIS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS EXPERIMENT. XMM-NEWTON WAS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED INTO THE DESIRED ORBIT ON DECEMBER 10 1999. THE DOORS TO THE TWO RGS CAMERAS WERE OPENED IN LATE JANUARY AND EARLY FEBRUARY 2000. SINCE THAT TIME THE INSTRUMENTS HAVE BEEN OPERATING NOMINALLY EXCEPT FOR THE LOSS OF TWO OF THE EIGHTEEN CCD DETECTORS DUE TO ELECTRONIC PROBLEMS. THE LOSS OF THESE TWO DETECTORS CREATES NON-OVERLAPPING GAPS IN THE SPECTRAL COVERAGE FOR EACH OF THE TWO IDENTICAL RGS INSTRUMENTS BUT OTHERWISE LEAVES THE INSTRUMENT PERFORMANCE UNCHANGED. THE MEASURED SPECTRAL RESOLUTION OF THE RGS AGREES WELL WITH PRELAUNCH PREDICTIONS WHICH INDICATES THAT THE COLUMBIA-DEVELOPED REFLECTION GRATING ARRAYS ARE BEHAVING AS EXPECTED. SINCE LAUNCH THE NASA-FUNDED RGS INSTRUMENT TEAM HAS PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN: ON-SITE OPERATIONS SUPPORT AT THE VILSPA (NOW THE EUROPEAN SPACE ASTROPHYSICS CENTRE ESAC) FACILITY IN VILLAFRANCA SPAIN; THE PERFORMANCE AND REDUCTION OF FLIGHT CALIBRATION OBSERVATIONS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RGS CALIBRATION DATABASE; THE DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUMENT-SPECIFIC SOFTWARE FOR THE REDUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF RGS OBSERVATIONS; THE PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE VERIFICATION AND RGS GUARANTEED-TIME OBSERVATIONS AND THE PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESULTS FROM THOSE OBSERVATIONS AT PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS AND IN THE PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS. AS THE MISSION HAS MATURED ATTENTION HAS SHIFTED TO THE REFINEMENT OF OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SUBTLE FEATURES IN THE INSTRUMENT CALIBRATION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED SPECIALPURPOSE DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS AND TO THE PERFORMANCE OF MORE SOPHISTICATED REANALYSES OF SOME OF THE EARLIER RGS DATA SETS AS WELL AS DATA STILL BEING ACQUIRED ON A ROUTINE BASIS FOR THE PURPOSES OF MONITORING AND CALIBRATION. WITH THE INSTRUMENTATION STARTING TO SHOW SIGNS OF AGEING WE EXPECT OUR INVOLVEMENT TO BECOME MORE CRITICAL AGAIN WITH INCREASED RESPONSIBILITIES FOR IDENTIFYING AND MODELING PHYSICAL CHANGES IN THE INSTRUMENTS. ALSO THE RGS HAS INCREASINGLY BEEN IN DEMAND FOR THE STUDY OF EXTENDED BUT COMPACT SOURCES. LONG EXPOSURES HAVE PRODUCED HIGH RESOLUTION SPECTRA OF ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES GROUPS OF GALAXIES AND CLUSTERS. THERE ARE NOW MANY MORE OBJECTS IN THESE CATEGORIES FOR WHICH RGS HAS PRODUCED A HIGH RESOLUTION SPECTRUM ENABLING POPULATION STUDIES. IN ADDITION A FEW OF THE BRIGHTEST OBJECTS HAVE BEEN EXPOSED FOR VERY EXTENSIVE PERIODS ENABLING A SEARCH FOR GAS IN PHASES THAT ARE HARD TO DETECT. THESE OBSERVATIONS USE THE HIGH DISPERSION OF THE RGS TO COMPENSATE FOR THE FACT THAT THE TARGETS ARE EXTENDED SO THAT THEIR RELATIVELY SPARSE EMISSION LINE SPECTRA ARE STILL FULLY RESOLVED. THIS APPLICATION OF THE INSTRUMENT IS LESS WELL CHARACTERIZED THAN THE STANDARD ON-AXIS POINT SOURCE MODE AND THE RGS TEAM HAS BEEN CALLED UPON TO HELP ESTABLISH THE INSTRUMENT RESPONSE FOR THIS MODE AND TO INTERPRET THE DATA.