This week in 1999, space shuttle Columbia delivered the Chandra X-Ray Observatory — shown here being installed and mated to the inertial upper stage inside Columbia’s cargo bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — to low-Earth orbit. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has been involved in development of many of the agency’s optical instruments. Notably, Marshall played a significant role in NASA’s Great Observatories, especially in managing the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and in managing the development, flight and current operations of Chandra.
The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the History Program’s webpage.
Image credit: NASA