Terry Gaetz's Home Page

Terry Gaetz, Astrophysicist Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory 60 Garden Sreet, Mail Stop 70 Cambridge, MA, 02138 (617) 496-7584, (617) 495-7356 [FAX]

Chandra X-Ray Observatory As part of the SAO/MST AXAF Mission Support Team, I contributed to reviews of the design and manufacture of the High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA) and Optical Bench portions of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO), and also to the alignment of the X-Ray mirrors. The HMRA consists of a nest of four pairs of Wolter Type-I paraboloid-hyperboloid X-Ray mirrors; it was designed and built by Eastman Kodak Company at Rochester, NY. The MST was also responsible for the ground calibration of the HRMA at the X-ray Calibration Facility (XRCF) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Currently I work on the calibration of the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) as part of the CXC Calibration group. Here is a schematic of the observatory. Some of our work on CXO mirror calibration is described here The ground calibration and the on-orbit calibration are being used to refine a high-fidelity raytrace model of the CXO performance. After two scrubbed launch attempts, Chandra was successfully launched 1999 July 23, 12:31AM EDT, as part of space shuttle mission STS-93. Here are some pictures of the CXO at various phases of assembly. (More pictures can be seen at the Chandra photo gallery.

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