Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                                                         December 21, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Dave Drachlis
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
(Phone:  256/544-0034)

Wallace Tucker
AXAF Science Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA
(Phone:  617/496-7998)

RELEASE:  98-225

NASA RENAMES TELESCOPE AND SETS NEW LAUNCH DATE

       NASA today set a new launch date for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility 
(AXAF), and announced that it will be renamed the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of 
the late Indian-American Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

       The Chandra X-ray Observatory will be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, 
FL, on or before Jan. 28 and launched no earlier than April 8, 1999.  The launch date will 
depend upon the actual shipping date and the results of a mid-February independent 
review of progress towards preparing the Cambridge, MA, operations center for launch.  

       Chandra will be carried to space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission 
STS-93, commanded by astronaut Eileen Collins.  The shipment of the spacecraft was 
delayed in mid-October so the prime contractor, TRW Space and Electronics Group, 
Redondo Beach, CA, could complete testing on flight software.

       "Chandra," a shortened version of Chandrasekhar's name, which he preferred among 
friends and colleagues, was chosen in a contest to rename AXAF.  "Chandra" also means 
"Moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit.  The winners are a high school student in Laclede, ID, 
and a teacher in Camarillo, CA.  

       "Chandrasekhar made fundamental contributions to the theory of black holes and 
other phenomena that the Chandra X-ray Observatory will study.  His life and work 
exemplify the excellence that we can hope to achieve with this great observatory," said 
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.

       "Chandra probably thought longer and deeper about our universe than anyone since 
Einstein," said Martin Rees, Great Britain's Astronomer Royal.

       Chandrasekhar, widely regarded as one of the foremost astrophysicists of the 20th 
century, won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his theoretical studies of physical processes 
important to the structure and evolution of stars.  He and his wife emigrated from India to 
the U.S. in 1935.  He served on the faculty of the University of Chicago until his death in 
1995. 

       The Chandra X-ray Observatory will help astronomers world-wide better understand 
the structure and evolution of the universe by studying powerful sources of X-rays such as 
exploding stars, matter falling into black holes and other exotic celestial objects.  X-ray 
astronomy can only be done from space because Earth's atmosphere blocks X-rays from 
reaching the surface.  Chandra will provide images that are fifty times more detailed than 
previous X-ray missions.  At more than 45 feet in length and weighing more than five tons, 
it will be one of the largest objects ever placed in Earth orbit by the Space Shuttle.

       Tyrel Johnson, a student at Priest River Lamanna High School in Priest River, ID, and 
Jatila van der Veen, a physics and astronomy teacher at Adolfo Camarillo High School, in 
Camarillo, CA, submitted the winning name and essays.  They will receive a trip to NASA's 
Kennedy Space Center in Florida to view the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a 
prize donated by TRW.  In all, 59 people submitted the name "Chandra."  Altogether, the 
contest drew more than 6,000 entries from all 50 states and 61 countries.  The seven 
members of the selection committee included a top aerospace executive, journalists, 
scientists and a university professor.

       The Chandra X-ray Observatory program is managed by NASA's Marshall Space 
Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.  The 
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) controls science and flight operations of the 
observatory for NASA from Cambridge, MA.  

- end -

EDITORS NOTE:  Further information, images and audio on NASA's Chandra 
Observatory is available on the internet at: 

   http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news     

and

     http://xrtpub.harvard.edu       

For information about S. Chandrasekhar, or comments from his Chicago colleagues, 
including those who will use the Chandra X-ray Observatory, contact Steve Koppes, 
University of Chicago, 773/702-8366, or via email at  s-koppes@uchicago.edu