Four years of operation of the Chandra X-ray observatory

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is the X-ray component of NASA's Great Observatory Program. The facility provides scientific data to the international astronomical community in response to proposals for its use. Data becomes public at most one year after the observation. The Observatory is the product of the efforts of many commercial, academic, and government organizations in the United States and Europe. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) manages the Project and provides Project Science; NGST (formerly TRW) served as prime contractor responsible for providing the spacecraft, the telescope, and assembling and testing the observatory; and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) provides technical support and is responsible for ground operations including the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC).