
In the Solid Motor Assembly Building, Cape Canaveral Air Station, STS-93 Mission Specialist Catherine G. Coleman kneels next to the Inertial Upper Stage booster being readied for the mission. Other crew members (not shown) are Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeffrey S. Ashby and Mission Specialists Steven A. Hawley and Michel Tognini of France, who represents the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). STS-93, scheduled to launch July 9 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, has the primary mission of the deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Formerly called the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, Chandra comprises three major elements: the spacecraft, the science instrument module (SIM), and the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. Chandra will allow scientists from around the world to see previously invisible black holes and high-temperature gas clouds, giving the observatory the potential to rewrite the books on the structure and evolution of our universe
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NASA ID
KSC-99pc0187
Date Created
February 9, 1999
Center
KSC
Media Type
image
Location
Cape Canaveral, FL
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Medium
960px