  In the summer of the year 2000, a NASA Small Explorer satellite, the High
Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI), will be launched. It will consist of
nine large, coaxial germanium detectors viewing the Sun through a set of
Rotation Modulation Collimators and will accomplish high-resolution imaging and
spectroscopy of solar flares in the x-ray and gamma-ray bands. Here we describe
some of the astrophysical observations HESSI will also perform in addition to
its solar mission.
