NuSTAR Mated to Launch Rocket
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Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit. NuSTAR has a 10 meter long mast that separates the optics modules (right) from the detectors (left).
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Last week, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) was mated to its Pegasus XL launch vehicle rocket today at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Scheduled no sooner than March 21st, the mission will the launch from the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific.
According to NASA, NuSTAR will probe some of the hottest, densest and most energetic objects in space, such as black holes and supernova remnants. NuSTAR is the first space telescope that can image in X-rays at high detail, which will help astronomers better understand our universe.
The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, and its instrumentation was provided by a number of agencies including: Caltech; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Columbia University; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; UC Berkeley; and others.
If you’d like to learn more about NuSTAR, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/main/index.html or http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/
Source:NASA/JPL News
Ray Sanders is a Sci-Fi geek, astronomer and blogger. Currently researching variable stars at Arizona State University, he writes for Universe Today, The Planetary Society blog, and his own blog, Dear Astronomer
2012-12-04 08:07:21
Source: http://www.dearastronomer.com/2012/02/21/nustar-mated-to-launch-rocket/
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