The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the U.S. follow-on to the Einstein
Observatory. Chandra was formerly known as AXAF, the Advanced X-ray
Astrophysics Facility, but renamed by NASA in December, 1998.
Originally three instruments and a high-resolution mirror carried in
one spacecraft, the project was reworked in 1992 and 1993. The Chandra
spacecraft carries a high resolution mirror, two imaging detectors,
and two sets of transmission gratings. Important Chandra features are:
an order of magnitude improvement in spatial resolution, good
sensitivity from 0.1 to 10 keV, and the capability for high spectral
resolution observations over most of this range.
