The Bepposax Revolution in Gamma–ray Burst Science

We review the BeppoSAX discoveries and studies in the field of Gamma-Ray Bursts, which allowed a huge step forward in the understanding of these still mysterious and highly interesting astrophys-ical sources. 1. THE BEPPOSAX MISSION AND ITS SCIENTIFIC PAYLOAD BeppoSAX was a mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with contribution of NIVR (Netherlands) launched in April 1996 and ended in April 2002. It was characterized by a Low Equatorial Orbit with 3.9 • inclination and ∼600 km altitude, resulting in a low and very stable background (few % variation along a single orbit). The scientific payload covered an unprecedented broad energy band (0.1–300 keV) and was composed by two set of instruments: the Narrow Field Instruments (NFI), pointing along the satellite Z axis, and two wide field instruments pointing in directions perpendicular to it. The NFI included (we report in parenthesis the energy band,