They named the observatory as AXAF, because they hoped it wouldn't be taken as another Hubble Space Telescope (HST), an exorbitant instrument being built at that time.Īfter 3 years' concept design and preliminary analysis, AXAF didn't enter its designing and development phase, the most important phase called "new start", until 1991. The next year, NASA took the project, sending a 1.2 meter X-ray observatory, into consideration, then let Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) teamed with Harvard-Smithsonian take responsibility of this mission and fund the group for studying the feasibility of the project.
Its expected launch date would have been 2020. In July 2008, the International X-ray Observatory, a joint project between ESA, NASA and JAXA, was proposed as the next major X-ray observatory but was later cancelled.
A study performed at the Chandra X-ray Center indicated that the observatory could last at least 15 years. To prevent further damage, the instrument is now removed from the telescope's focal plane during passages.Īlthough Chandra was initially given an expected lifetime of 5 years, on 4 September 2001 NASA extended its lifetime to 10 years "based on the observatory's outstanding results." Physically Chandra could last much longer. The ACIS CCDs suffered particle damage during early radiation belt passages. It is operated by the SAO at the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with assistance from MIT and Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Chandra was placed in a lower-than-planned orbit due to an error with Columbia's main engines during launch, resulting in an Abort-To-Orbit (ATO).Ĭhandra has been returning data since the month after it launched. At 22753 kg, it was the heaviest payload ever launched by the shuttle, a consequence of the two-stage Inertial Upper Stage booster rocket system needed to transport the spacecraft to its high orbit.
This eliminated the possibility of improvement or repair by the space shuttle but put the observatory above the Earth's radiation belts for most of its orbit.ĪXAF was renamed Chandra in 1998 and launched in 1999 by the shuttle Columbia (STS-93). Chandra's planned orbit was changed to an elliptical one, reaching one third of the way to the Moon's at its farthest point. Four of the twelve planned mirrors were eliminated, as were two of the six scientific instruments. In 1992, to reduce costs, the spacecraft was redesigned. Work continued on the Chandra project through 1980s and 1990s. In the meantime, in 1978, NASA launched the first imaging X-ray telescope, Einstein (HEAO-2), into orbit. Preliminary work began the following year at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). In 1976 the Chandra X-ray Observatory (called AXAF at the time) was proposed to NASA by Riccardo Giacconi and Harvey Tananbaum. AXAF was assembled and tested by TRW (now Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems) in Redondo Beach, California. Before 1998, it was known as AXAF, the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility. "Chandra" also means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit. He was known for determining the maximum mass for white dwarfs. Chandrasekhar who worked for University of Chicago from 1937 until he passed away in 1995. It was named in honor of the Nobel-prize winning physicist S. Chandra has been compared to being as revolutionary to astronomy as Galileo's first telescope. Of those four, three continue Compton ended in 2000. The first was Hubble Space Telescope second the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, launched in 1991 and last is the Spitzer Space Telescope. It is an Earth satellite in a 64 hour orbit, its mission is ongoing as of 2012.Ĭhandra Observatory is the third of NASA's four Great Observatories. Since the Earth's atmosphere absorbs the vast majority of X-rays, they are not detectable from Earth-based telescopes, requiring a space-based telescope to make these observations. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope, enabled by the high angular resolution of its mirrors. The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a space telescope launched on STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999.
0 kommentar(er)
