Chandra X-ray Observatory

The Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA's newest and most capable X-ray space observatory, is named for pioneering University of Chicago astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Carrying the world's most powerful X-ray telescope and a suite of high resolution imaging and spectroscopy instruments, CXO will be able to detect X-ray sources billions of light years away, revealing celestial phenomena not visible to the human eye or conventional optical telescopes. When launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in spring 1999, it will become the third of NASA's Great Observatories to become operational, joining the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. All three observatories now are named for scientists with University of Chicago ties. TRW led the team of contractors that built CXO for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.