For Release: November 27, 1996

Dave Drachlis/Jerry Berg
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034

NOTE TO EDITORS: 96-184

AXAF MIRROR ASSEMBLY TO ARRIVE AT MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER FOR CALIBRATION

The heart of NASA's next major orbiting observatory -- the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) -- is scheduled to arrive at the Redstone Arsenal Airfield in Huntsville, Ala., Saturday at approximately 12:40 p.m. CST.

Known as the High Resolution Mirror Assembly, it consists of four pairs of cylindrical mirrors, precisely mounted one inside the next in a nested arrangement. The largest of the mirrors is 47.2 inches in diameter, which makes this mirror set the largest ever made.

The mirror assembly will be transported on an Air Force C-5 Galaxy -- the largest U.S. aircraft -- from the Eastman-Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y., where mirror assembly was completed in October. From the airfield, it will be moved to the X-ray Calibration Facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center where the mirror assembly will be tested in a space-like environment to verify its performance prior to assembly of the AXAF observatory.

The mirror assembly will be kept in a clean room of the Calibration Facility for approximately seven days in preparation to be moved into the facility's vacuum chamber for testing. The assembly will be visible in the clean room and news media will have an opportunity to view it before it is put into the chamber.

News media interested in covering the arrival and transportation of the mirror assembly should contact the Public Affairs Office at Marshall at (205) 544-0034. Because arrival time is subject to change, media representatives are advised to call (205) 544-6397 for an up-to-date status report prior to leaving for the airfield.

The advanced X-ray telescope is scheduled to be launched aboard a Space Shuttle in August 1998. Ranking among NASA's great observatories, including the Hubble Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the X-ray facility 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.

Prepared by Joy Carter