Great Observatories program

The Great Observatories program is four large, powerful space-based telescopes. They are a series of satellites placed by NASA. Each Space observatory has been important to astronomy.

• The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) looks at visible light and near-ultraviolet. It was launched in 1990. In 1997 ability to look at the near-infrared range was added. In 2009 there was a mission to service Hubble.

• The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) looks at gamma rays. It also looks at some hard x-rays as well. It was launched in 1991. It was deorbited in 2000.

• The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) looks at soft x-rays. It was launched in 1999.

• The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) looks at the infrared spectrum. It was launched in 2003.

Four Great Observatories