Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
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Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
This artist's concept shows the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, space telescope in orbit. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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NuSTAR Inches Toward its Rocket
At Vandenberg Air Force Base's processing facility in California, the separation ring on the aft end of NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), at right, inches its way toward the third stage of an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket.
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NuSTAR Poses for the Camera
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, at Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va., January 2012.
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Final Steps in Mating NuSTAR to its Rocket
Inside an environmental enclosure at Vandenberg Air Force Base's processing facility in California, technicians complete the final steps in mating NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and its Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket.
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Beginning the Journey to the Launch Pad
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, mission is lowered into its shipping container at Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va. It is scheduled to launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on March 14, 2012.
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Integrating NuSTAR
Engineers in the final stages of assembling NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, at Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va., January 2012.
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Wrapping NuSTAR in Its Rocket Nose Cone
An Orbital Sciences technician completes final checks of NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, before the Pegasus payload fairing is secured around it.
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Mission Summary
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, mission will study the universe in high energy X-rays to better understand the dynamics of black holes, exploding stars and the most extreme active galaxies.
In addition to complimenting astrophysics missions studying the universe in various spectra, NuSTAR, the first hard-focusing X-ray telescope to orbit Earth, is expected to greatly improve on observations from ground-based observatories.
