Northrop Grumman to extend life of $1.65bn Chandra telescope by several decades - the observatory will be serviced in space

The Chandra X-ray Space Observatory was launched in mid-1999. The $1.65 billion telescope could last for decades to come.

Here's What We Know

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Northrop Grumman are developing a plan to extend Chandra's lifespan by several decades. The company has been exploring ways to send a mission into space that would carry out maintenance on the telescope for a year and a half.

The possibility was announced last March. SpaceLogistics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, will take part in the mission. It is preparing to send its vision of the procedure to NASA for review. A space tug designed specifically for the mission will probably be involved. We have no further details.

Chandra was launched into space on 23 July 1999. The telescope is designed to explore space in the X-ray range. It is equipped with a high-resolution camera (HRC), spectrometers for imaging X-ray objects and diffraction gratings that deflect X-rays to be recorded by HRC-S detectors.

Source: space