Launch of Chandra X-ray Observatory

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a NASA space telescope designed to detect X-rays from very hot regions of the universe, such as the matter around black holes, exploding stars and clusters of galaxies. It was launched in July 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on a mission commanded by Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a shuttle flight. Earth's atmosphere blocks X-rays, so such instruments must work in space, and Chandra follows a very elongated orbit that takes it a third of the way to the Moon. It is named in honour of the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Its images provided evidence for dark matter and many views of supernova remnants and the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

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