 In February of 1987, astronomers looking at the nearby galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud witnessed a rare event. A supernova explosion, the spectacular death of the star. Astronomers around the world have eagerly studied supernova 1987A with sensitive telescopes hoping to learn what will happen to the expanding debris and the fiery core of the star. Has the inner core collapsed as scientists expect into a tiny dense pulsing neutron star at the center? In the exploding gas in giant supernovas, in hundreds of millions of stars, in huge spiraling galaxies, in distant quasars, whose light has been traveling to us since the beginning of the universe. In these fantastic objects, astronomers have learned that great forces heat gases to extreme temperatures above tens of millions of degrees, causing them to emit massive amounts of x-rays. The space shuttle will carry sensitive new telescopes into orbit to study the cosmos. One telescope measures x-rays emitted from supernovas, quasars and other high-energy targets in space. Priceless new information from this broadband x-ray telescope will help scientists uncover more pieces in the puzzle of knowledge about the universe. Go for main engine start. Four, three, two, one. And lift off, lift off on Columbia and it's return to flight. In the spring of 1990, the space shuttle Columbia will lift off on a special mission called Astro-1, dedicated to scientific observations of our universe. Once in orbit, four new telescopes will be operated from the shuttle's payload bay. BBXRT, the broadband x-ray telescope, analyzes x-rays emitted by extremely hot and energetic stars and galaxies in distant space. Three other telescopes mounted together on a pointing platform examine ultraviolet light emitted from nearby objects in our solar system and from stars and distant galaxies. These telescopes must be operated in space because the Earth's atmosphere prevents most radiation, including x-rays and ultraviolet light, from reaching the ground. The visible light that we can see is a surprisingly small portion of the radiation that is emitted in space. We know that massive amounts of radiation are emitted in the invisible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet light and x-rays. Each type of radiation provides different clues about the nature of the object. The broadband x-ray telescope studies radiation emitted in a large portion of the x-ray spectrum, which has never been studied before in great detail. For example, BBXRT can detect which chemical elements are present in an x-ray source, such as oxygen, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and calcium, elements that are abundant in space and essential to life on Earth. BBXRT is the first x-ray telescope used in space that can detect the presence of iron in a broad variety of targets. Because iron is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, its presence in an x-ray source provides tell-tale evidence about that object, for example its size, temperature, how old it is, whether it rotates and at what speed, and other physical conditions. The dream of building and launching a broadband x-ray telescope into space began more than 12 years ago here at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Over 40 satellites have been built and tested at Goddard. Countless others have been managed by NASA's Greenbelt facility. In the late 1970s, Dr. Peter Serlamitzos, working in Goddard's High Energy Astrophysics Laboratory, developed a light and inexpensive mirror sufficiently smooth to reflect x-rays. It was made from shiny aluminum foil coated with acrylic and gold. The mirrors were nested together in a housing to provide the large surface area needed to gather x-rays. These foil mirrors made the telescope light enough to be carried into space on the shuttle. Once the telescope was approved for flight, teams of up to 100 Goddard scientists, engineers and technicians worked for five years to build the instrument and a unique reusable pointing system for the telescope. Payload Manager Frank Volpe describes the challenges of building the telescope. When you fly in the orbiter, the key most criteria is to make sure it's safe. So we have gone through extensive testing and design to ensure that in a no way jeopardize the health and safety of the crew and the orbiter. To that extent, you also must make sure that it is its limits of weight and power and thermal requirements all within the constraints of the orbiter itself. We had to take some exceptional steps to ensure that the thermal systems remained within its limits. At one end of the telescope, we have elements operating at a very, very cold temperature around 40 degrees Kelvin at other places on the telescope and the payload. We have a box that likes to operate near room temperature. Once the telescope was built, it was lowered into the two-axis pointing system structure. During the integration and testing phase, the complex electronic systems controlling the telescope and the support structure were wired together and repeatedly checked. The blankets were attached to achieve the required thermal insulation in space. Vibration, acoustics and thermal vacuum tests were conducted on the telescope to simulate conditions encountered during the mission. Some of the shuttle astronauts shown here in their anti-contamination suits came to Goddard to get a first-hand look at the new telescope that they will carry into orbit. Goddard scientists have carefully chosen the X-ray sources that the BB-XRT will observe. These unusually hot and energetic targets vary from tiny neutron stars drawing gas from a larger companion star to giant clusters of galaxies. A prime BB-XRT target is a supernova remnant. They exploded outer shell of a star which occupies vast areas in space. The outer edges, heated to extreme temperatures by shock waves, emit millions of X-rays. In these regions, BB-XRT can detect the presence of heavy elements such as iron and many other elements that make up our own bodies. By studying the supernova, the X-ray telescope will contribute new information about how these important elements are manufactured inside stars. The BB-XRT principal investigator, Dr. Peter Sirle-Mitzos. Everything we learn from it is tell-tale evidence of what was inside the star. You know, how we're going to study what the star is forming inside. We're waiting for it to spew this matter out into the stellar space and therefore, from the pieces out there, we see the X-ray emission. That tells us what was forming the star, how much iron, how much silicon, and so forth. As the exploded outer shell of supernova 1987A dissipates into space, it may be possible for BB-XRT to observe the existence of a neutron star at the center. Neutron stars are formed during a supernova explosion when the inner region of a star collapses into a tiny core. Pulsars are neutron stars that rotate extremely quickly, some as fast as 1,000 times a second. They emit light and X-rays in searchlight beams, making them appear to blink on and off. Scientists believe that neutron stars are unimaginably dense. One teaspoon full of matter from a neutron star would weigh over a billion tons. Many neutron stars are often paired with a much larger companion star. In this binary star system, the tiny neutron star exerts an extremely strong gravitational pull which draws gas from the companion star. The gas flows into an accretion disk around the neutron star. As it approaches the star, the gas is heated to millions of degrees and emits large amounts of X-rays. In some systems, the gas flows onto the pole of the neutron star along its magnetic field. Scientists believe that some binary systems may contain a mysterious black hole instead of a neutron star. X-rays are emitted as the swirling hot gas is drawn into the black hole. The gravitational force exerted by the black hole is so strong that neither light nor matter can escape once they are drawn in. The physical conditions found inside the black hole are totally unknown. The X-ray telescope will study a suspected black hole in our galaxy called Cygnus X-1. Scientists hope BB-XRT will confirm the theory that material is actually spiraling around the black hole as it is drawn into it. Perhaps none of BB-XRT's targets are as mysterious as the quasars. Though they look like stars, quasars are believed to be the center of distant galaxies formed billions of years ago. Yet a single quasar radiates more energy than 100 normal galaxies combined. It is believed that quasars may be powered by a massive black hole. Quasars are the furthest objects from Earth ever observed, so the light emitted from them dates back to a time much closer to the Big Bang, the indescribably huge explosion that scientists believe was the beginning of the universe. BB-XRT co-investigator Frank Marshall. Quasars have been known for, I guess, more than 20 years now, but it's still not known what the real energy generation mechanism in quasars is. But X-rays allow you to look very close into the central engine of quasars, which is where most of the action is going on. So we'll look very close to what we think is the black hole at the center of the quasar and get a measurement of perhaps how the material is falling into the quasar. And how large the object at the center of the quasar is. The largest areas BB-XRT will study are clusters of galaxies, where hundreds of galaxies move around each other in their own gravitational system. Previous X-ray instruments have discovered an extremely hot gas that covers an enormous region within the cluster. BB-XRT will analyze the chemical makeup of the gas. Clusters of galaxies, what is the gas that is in them? How hot it is and what it is? Is it just hydrogen from the Big Bang or is it something that the galaxies that are going in this cluster that has been spewing out and now is heated up in the middle of the cluster? In astrophysics, this is important information and instruments like BB-XRT give you that information. It's just that a lot of this information simply does not exist right now and BB-XRT will be producing this information. The weeks prior to the launch are a time of great anticipation for the men and women who work to build a telescope. Together with the ultraviolet telescopes, BB-XRT is positioned into the shuttle's payload bay at the Kennedy Space Center. During the mission, the X-ray telescope will be controlled from the Goddard Space Flight Center. Several flight simulations are held prior to launch. Many of the scientists and engineers who built and tested the telescope practice the commands and procedures to be used during the mission. Astro will be around the clock mission. Nearly every orbit, the astronauts will adjust the orientation of the shuttle. Then the telescopes will make fine adjustments toward new targets. For part of the mission, all the telescopes will point at the same target such as supernova 1987A. By comparing simultaneous information taken in two different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, scientists will gain a more complete understanding of these targets. At other times, the X-ray and ultraviolet telescopes will be pointed at different targets. All data from the telescopes will be analyzed over the coming years. What's been exciting about this project is that the science was conceived here. The instrument was developed here. The rest of the payload was developed and integrated and tested here. And the whole payload will be controlled from the Goddard Space Flight Center Control Center. Largely, we don't know exactly what we're going to see, which is part of the excitement that the 10 days will produce for us and discover exactly what we do find. In the past, X-ray astronomy, new X-ray astronomy missions have always produced something we didn't anticipate. In many circumstances, those have been the most exciting results. And I'm very hopeful that the same will be true for BBXRT. The broadband X-ray telescope, along with the astro-ultraviolet telescopes, stands ready to deliver brand new information to scientists all over the world about the greatest mysteries in the universe, its origin, its evolution, and its future.