Astrophysics

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

Completed

Image: NASA/Ken Cameron · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Launched: 5 Apr 199114:22:45 UTC
Last contact: 4 Jun 2000
End declared: 4 Jun 2000
Duration: 9 years 1 month
Destinations: Low Earth orbit

The second of NASA's Great Observatories, which studied the Universe in gamma rays and showed that gamma-ray bursts come from all directions in the sky. At 17 tonnes it was the heaviest astrophysics payload flown at the time.

Milestones

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19921994199619982000

Spacecraft

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

Telescope

Completed

Observatory with four gamma-ray instruments, deployed from Space Shuttle Atlantis and deliberately brought down after a gyroscope failed.

Launch mass: 15,622 kg
Dry mass: 13,891 kg
Size: 7.6 m × 4.6 m, span 21.3 m
Power: Solar
Built by: TRW
Last contact: 4 Jun 2000
End declared: 4 Jun 2000
Designator: 1991-027B

Mission details from science.nasa.gov.