A timeline for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the third of NASA's four "Great Observatories", and is used by Astronomers to study some of the more extreme objects and events (in terms of temperature and mass) in the Universe. It is in orbit around the Earth - because the Earth's atmosphere absorbs the X-rays it is built to detect - and is at a much-larger altitude than that used by the Hubble Space Telescope; at times it is more than one-third the way to the Moon! Here we show a timeline of some of the major events in the lifetime of the Chandra Observatory.

This was built around the time of the ten-year celebration of the launch of Chandra and has not been updated since; please see the much-spiffier Chandra skymap which the Chandra X-ray Center have put together.

Further information on Chandra can be found at:

• Chandra Press Releases
• Mission Milestones
• Chandra 101: Overview for Teachers and Students
• Field Guide: X-ray Astronomy
• The Chandra X-ray Center
• NASA's Chandra site

This page was created using the SIMILE Timeline widget by Doug Burke, using information taken from the Chandra X-ray Center site.

Pleast note that this page, or any information derived from it, is not an official product of the Chandra X-ray Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, or NASA.