HEAO-2 Launches – Nov. 13, 1978
This week in 1978, the High Energy Astronomy Observatory 2 was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket. HEAO-2, the second of three HEAO satellites, was renamed Einstein after launch and was the first fully imaging X-ray telescope put into space. It was also the first NASA mission to have a guest observer program. Here, the HEAO-2 telescope is checked by engineers in NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's X-ray Calibration Facility. Today, NASA's satellite X-ray telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, is managed by the Marshall Center. 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.
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