In 1958 the Explorer I rocket discovered the Van Allen radiation belts. In 1962 an Aerobee 150 Rocket launched a payload 140 miles above the Earth. It remained above 50 miles for 5 minutes and 50 seconds. During this brief time the window opened and recorded the first evidence of X-rays beyond the Solar System. In 1970 Skylab took several X-ray images of the Sun. At that time it was not thought there was much of a future for X-ray astronomy, due to the small amount of X-ray output from the Sun. The Einstein observatory was launched in 1978 and followed by others, including ROSAT, developed at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. ROSAT was launched in 1990 and was highly successful. Chandra will "see" objects 20 times fainter and with 100 times greater detail.

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