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NASA's Chandra - Designed for Five Year Mission, Still Going Strong at Ten

08/02/2009 10:49PM

NASA's Chandra - Designed for Five Year Mission, Still Going Strong at Ten

Ten years ago, on July 23, 1999, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched aboard the space shuttle Columbia and deployed into orbit. With its unrivaled ability to create high-resolution X-ray images, Chandra has enabled astronomers to investigate phenomena as diverse as comets, black holes, dark matter and dark energy. Originally designed for five years of service, Chandra has doubled its original mission, ushering in an unprecedented decade of discovery for the high-energy universe. That is not bad for a space telescope that was designed to not be serviced after deployment.


Comments:

  • newtgem [Ronald Abraham]
  • 08/03/2009 01:31AM
If there is a problem with NASA, everyone hears about it and the political spin machine revs up. If there is a reason to applaud NASA like hardware far outliving reasonable expectations, only those of us searching for news hear about it.<br><br>Just an observation. Not an indictment of media, but rather a general observation of the mindset of our so-called "informed society".<br><br>Makes me wonder what would happen if Jay Leno asked NASA questions on street corners.