June 18, 1999
Web posted at: 9:51 p.m. EDT (0151 GMT)

By Robin Lloyd
CNN Interactive Senior Writer

(CNN) -- A NASA X-ray space observatory designed to see violent, vibrant cosmic reactions invisible to the Hubble Space Telescope underwent final packaging Friday for its move early next week to a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.

The preparation of the Chandra Observatory for transport to the launch site on Monday or Tuesday lifted the hopes of those who have worked on the project for years, only to face lengthy delays.

Liftoff is now set for July 20 aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

Claude Canizares, principal investigator for program's scientific component, said he has waited since the early 1980s, when the first funding talks took place, for Chandra to reach this point.

"It's really looking like it's going to go," Canizares said. "I can't believe it, after 15 years." Chandra cost about $1.4 billion to design and build.

Canizares and dozens of others working on the Chandra program originally had anticipated an August 1998 launch. Scheduling, hardware and software woes pushed that date back repeatedly.

Chandra is designed to give scientists images of high-energy activity in the universe where temperatures can reach millions of degrees and objects are accelerated to nearly the speed of light. The observatory will provide information on the nature of objects as diverse as comets in our solar system and quasars at the edge of the observable universe.

The goal is to understand the structure and evolution of the universe, including the composition and location of so-called dark matter and the source of power driving explosions in distant galaxies.

Chandra has four telescope mirrors, shaped as cylinders so high-energy X-rays will graze them and be guided toward instruments rather than pierce the highly polished glass. The mirrors are the largest of their kind and the smoothest ever created, Canizares said.

Chandra is designed to yield "pictures" of the galaxies and other celestial features invisible to the human eye, but engineers will assign colors to differing high-energy frequencies to convert the data to visible color images, said program scientist Alan Bunner.

The result will be representations of the heavens that are 10 times sharper than anything produced by previous ground-based X-ray telescopes. "Hubble was only better by a factor of five compared to ground-based, visible-light telescopes," Bunner said.

Flight engineers at the Florida facility on Wednesday finished a review of Chandra and an attached rocket that will push the space telescope toward its elliptical orbit around Earth. At its peak, the orbit will reach a third of the way to the moon.

Chandra is set for installation into the space shuttle's cargo bay on June 24.

Thursday, engineers began the fourth of six launch simulation tests, including a rehearsal of Chandra's exit from the shuttle cargo bay and boost to a higher orbit.

Chandra Observatory program manager Fred Wojtalik at Marshall Space Flight Center, which oversees the project, said he was impressed with the teams preparing for the launch.

"The careful and deliberate testing, simulations and launch preparations we are conducting are key to a successful mission," he said.

Once launched, Chandra could function for five to 10 years. It will operate as a true observatory, with time available to astronomers through proposals, just like ground-based telescopes.

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