For Release: May 7, 1997

Gregory A. Shell
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034

RELEASE: 97-067

AIR FORCE C-5 GALAXY TRANSPORTS MIRROR ASSEMBLY OF NASA'S MOST POWERFUL X-RAY TELESCOPE CROSS-COUNTRY

The high-resolution mirrors of NASA's most powerful X-ray telescope were recently transported cross-country by an Air Force C-5 Galaxy assigned to the 436th Airlift Wing at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The mirrors were moved from the X-ray Calibration Facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to TRW Space and Electronics Group in Redondo Beach, Calif., where the telescope will be assembled. The mirror assembly, four pairs of precisely shaped and aligned cylindrical mirrors, is the heart of NASA's next great space-based observatory -- the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility. The telescope is scheduled to be launched into orbit aboard a Space Shuttle in August 1998.

Flight Crew: Pilot - Capt. Richard Oddo; Co-pilot - Capt. David Knolmayer;

Loadmasters - SSgt. Robert Sullivan, SSgt. Richard Sharpe and SrA. Charles Sherman;

Flight Engineers - MSgt. Philip Stewart, SrA. Jerry Klees, SSgt. Joseph Moore and SSgt. Edward Davidson

Ground Support Crew: SSgt. Hubert Romero, SrA. Jeff Powell, SrA. Matthew Depew, SrA. Eric Barrnett