Imaging of extragalactic radio sources with the VSOP space VLBI mission

In September 1996 the first dedicated VLBI spacecraft, VSOP, will be launched. This Japanese spacecraft operating in conjunction with ground-based VLBI arrays such as the EVN or VLBA will enable observers to routinely undertake VLBI observations with maximum baseline lengths of 2.6 Earth diameters and a resolution of 55 mu as at the highest operating frequency of 22 GHz. In this paper we present a brief overview of the imaging capability of the VSOP mission together with an example of an imaging simulation.