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.
