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The Chandra Mission
Extraordinary commitment and precision is required to
plan and build telescopes that will be placed in space where they are operated
by remote control in a hostile environment of wild temperature swings and
hard vacuum, after withstanding the controlled fury of launch. The entire
process typically takes many years and creativity is demanded when unexpected
changes are imposed. The Chandra observatory was first proposed to NASA
in 1976 and funding began in 1977 when NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
started the definition studies of the telescope.
In 1992, there was a major restructuring of the observatory.
NASA decided that in order to reduce cost, the number of mirrors
would be decreased from twelve to eight and only four of the six
scientific instruments would be used. At this point the planned
orbit was changed from low to high Earth orbit to preserve the
scientific capability of Chandra.
Teams of scientists, engineers, technicians and managers who work
at numerous government centers, Universities and corporations
have been building and assembling Chandra over the past twenty
years. Many of these dedicated men and women have been involved
in the project from its inception.
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