  The X-ray observations of SN 1987A over the previous 20 years have seen the
emergence of soft X-rays from the interaction of the explosion shock wave with
the ambient medium. This shock wave is now interacting strongly with the inner
ring and might have passed already the highest density regions. The emission
can be described by thermal models with two temperatures, with perhaps some but
little change over time. Relative to the elemental abundances prevailing in the
LMC the inner ring shows an overabundance of Si and S compared to the lighter
elements and Fe, which suggests that the ring consists of highly processed
matter dredged up in a binary merger event well before the explosion. The X-ray
lightcurves between 0.5--2 keV and 3--10 keV differ significantly in slope,
with the latter being much flatter but very similar to the radio light curve.
