The Chandra X-ray Observatory

The Chandra Observatory (formerly called the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility - AXAF) the world's most powerful X-ray telescope, was launched on July 23, 1999 to view X-ray sources from space. Astronomers must have this observatory in space because the Earth's atmosphere absorbs and blocks celestial X-ray radiation from reaching the ground.

Chandra flies 200 times higher than the Hubble Space Telescope and its orbit takes it one third of the way to the Moon. The cylindrical glass mirrors in Chandra are the largest of their kind and the smoothest ever created. Chandra and its upper stage was the heaviest payload ever launched on the Shuttle.

The Chandra design and development program was managed by MSFC. The observatory's telescope was tested and certified at the MSFC X-ray calibration facility.

Solar X-ray Imager (SXI)

SXI is designed to obtain a continuous sequence of corona X-ray images from the Sun to monitor solar activity for its effects on the Earth's upper atmosphere. It uses a Wolter grazing incidence mirror similar to the type in Chandra. SXI was assembled and tested at MSFC in the stray light facility and will be launched as part of a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather satellite.

CIRS Composite Infrared Spectrometer for the Cassini Saturn Spacecraft

The Composite Infrared Spectrometer is a set of interferometers designed to measure infrared emissions from atmospheres, rings, and surfaces to determine their compositions and temperatures. MSFC made and tested the mirrors for the CIRS instrument in the optical fabrication shop. Cassini was launched on October 6, 1997 and arrived at Saturn on July 1, 2004. Cassini Optics

SHASM - Segmented Hexagon Array Solar Mirror

A segmented array of mirrors was designed for a solar concentrator test stand at MSFC for powering solar thermal propulsion engines. The 144 mirrors each have a spherical surface to approximate a parabolic concentrator when combined into the entire 18-foot diameter array. The mirror segments are aluminum hexagons that had the surface diamond turned and quartz coated. The array focuses sunlight reflected from a heliostat to a 4 inch diameter spot containing 10kw of power at the 15-foot focal point.