NASA's Chandra The observatory was first proposed to NASA in 1976, funding began in 1977, and after more than 20 years it was finally launched into space. It was previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysical Facility (AXAF), but after a competition in 1998 it was renamed Chandra after Nobel Prize-winning Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. “Chandra's main mission is to teach us about the Universe we live in, with indirect benefits, for example by inspiring students to be interested in mathematics and physics, or by showing people how complicated and beautiful the Universe is.” (Chandra official website, FAQ) The Chandra x-ray Science Center (CXC) is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Harvey Tananbaum is the director of the Center. The flight is directed by the Scientific Control Center which also executes the observatory's observation plan and receives scientific data. Mission planning and service operations are the responsibility of Science Support. Chandra is the most sophisticated telescope in space and is used by scientists around the world. The observatory consists of three main parts: the X-ray telescope, the scientific instruments and the spacecraft. The electrical power needed to operate the spacecraft and instruments is 2 kilowatts, which is what is needed to operate a hairdryer. The Chandra observatory orbits up to an altitude of about 139,000 km, or about a third of the distance from the Moon, and brings it back to 16,000 km from Earth. It takes Chandra 64 hours and 18 minutes to complete an orbit that takes about two and a half days. In 1992, Chandra's orbit... in the center of the map... in the universe we live in. We now know that most main sequence stars emit X-rays. This helps us develop more X-ray telescopes to investigate more in our galaxy. It also showed us scenarios we didn't know before, like one galaxy cannibalizing another to grow in size. Chandra's mission extension, based on his extraordinary work, also speaks in favor of this. The observatory has also helped scientists around the world expand their knowledge and new data. Another plus is the results, NASA uses many photos taken by Chandra in the press. It has also helped solve many mysteries about black holes, exploding stars, and other similar phenomena. I think it was a good decision to build and launch Chandra. It has brought many excellent results and has helped and will continue to help scientists until the end of its mission.