Don Savage

Headquarters, Washington, DC October 18, 1996

(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Greg Shell
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
(Phone: 205/544-0034)

RELEASE: 96-212

COMPLETION OF MIRROR ASSEMBLY MARKS MILESTONE

FOR NASA'S ADVANCED X-RAY ASTROPHYSICS FACILITY

The world's most powerful X-ray observatory came a

major step closer to completion recently with the assembly of
its high resolution mirrors.

The last of four pairs of unique mirrors which form

the heart of NASA's Advanced
X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) were aligned and cemented
into place at Eastman Kodak's Federal Systems Division in
Rochester, NY, last month.

"The extreme sensitivity of the mirrors made the

installation a very delicate and pain-staking process," said
John Humphreys, Project Development Manager at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. "Successful
completion of the process represents a real achievement in
the development of the telescope."

The high resolution mirror assembly is now being

outfitted with additional hardware and a covering in
preparation for testing and calibration in a special facility
at Marshall, beginning in mid-November.

Unlike the concave, nearly flat mirrors used in

optical telescopes, the AXAF mirrors are shallow, almost
cylindrical cones. The four pairs of mirrors are nested
inside each other. X-rays enter the telescope, graze off the
mirrors -- much like a stone skipping across the surface of a
pond -- and are focused onto a plane 30 feet behind the front
of the mirrors.

The largest of the mirrors is 47.2 inches, which makes

this mirror set the largest ever made. The size and accuracy
of the mirrors will make AXAF 100 time more sensitive than
previous X-ray telescopes, producing images 10 times sharper.

The observatory is scheduled for a Space Shuttle

launch in 1998. In orbit, it will obtain never-before-seen
images of highly energized X-ray sources -- such as neutron
stars, black holes, debris from exploding stars, quasars,
centers of galaxies and galaxy clusters.

AXAF will rank among NASA's great observatories, along

with the Hubble Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory. It will explore some of the most intriguing
mysteries in space and offer a better understanding and
knowledge of the universe.

Marshall manages development of the observatory for

the Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington,
DC. TRW Space and Electronics Group, Redondo Beach, CA, is
the prime contractor for the program. Ball Aerospace
Division, Boulder, CO, provided hardware subsystems, and the
AXAF mirrors were built and assembled by Hughes Danbury
Optical Systems, Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc., Danbury,
CT, and Eastman-Kodak Company, Rochester, N.Y.

- end -

EDITOR'S NOTE: An image to accompany this release is

available to news media representatives by calling the
Headquarters Imaging Branch at 202/358-1900.
Photo numbers are:
Color: 96-HC-680
B&W: 96-H-680