[Launch Control: 25 seconds…]

When space shuttle Columbia headed for orbit 25 years ago tomorrow, it made history. It was the first mission commanded by a woman – Air Force pilot Eileen Collins. And it was carrying the heaviest payload ever lofted by a shuttle: Chandra X-Ray Observatory – the largest X-ray telescope ever flown.

[Launch Control: 5, 4, 3, we have a go for engine start, zero. We have booster ignition and liftoff of Columbia! Reaching new heights for women and X-ray astronomy.]

And Chandra is maintaining those heights – it’s still working.

The telescope studies some of the hottest and most energetic objects and events in the universe – exploding stars, outbursts from normal stars, gas around black holes, and much more. Such objects produce much of their energy in the form of X-rays. But Earth’s atmosphere blocks most X-rays, so the only way to study them is from space.

Chandra’s orbit carries it more than a third of the way to the Moon. That puts it outside most of Earth’s radiation belts, which can “fog” X-ray images.

X-rays go right through a normal telescope mirror. So Chandra uses a set of mirrors along the sides of the telescope tube. X-rays graze off those mirrors and come to a focus at the telescope’s instruments.

Chandra is still making history today – by keeping a sharp “eye” on the X-ray sky.

Script by Damond Benningfield