The Chandra X-Ray Observatory, formerly the Advanced X-Ray AstroPhysics Facility, is in final testing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for its launch aboard the Space Shuttle STS93/Columbia on 9 July. The Chandra is the third of NASA's "great observatories", after the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The fourth in the series will be the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, which will be launched in 2001, a year later than planned because of technical problems.
Source: Flight International
