Chandra spotted a young black hole. Exciting and scientifically valuable.
Chandra is awesome. It was so big that they had to launch it on Columbia, which was the only shuttle that had enough room in the cargo bay for it to fit. (All the other shuttles had previously had their internal airlocks removed and replaced with external airlocks, which took up space in the cargo bay.) But Columbia was also the heaviest shuttle, so they had to use the super light-weight version of the external tank, AND previous-generation main engines that were lighter and more powerful but also less safe, AND partially disassemble the shuttle to remove still more weight -- all of which required a whole bunch of engineering waivers. And THEN during launch, two of the main engine controllers shorted out and one of the engines developed a fuel leak, resulting in a premature main engine cutoff. It was the first mission to have a female shuttle commander, too. Despite all this, the mission was a smashing success.
The launch was pretty epic. I highly recommend watching
this video about it, or reading the transcript. Edge-of-your-seat NASA stuff.
So I guess this post was more about how Columbia was awesome. But Chandra is awesome too.
