HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Former shuttle astronaut Dr. Steven Hawley was the guest speaker for Thursday’s Coffee at the Cosmo.
Before a full house, Hawley spoke about his 1999 mission on Shuttle Columbia and the launching of the Chandra X-ray 
Observatory. The observatory, launched and deployed by Columbia, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. Chandra was designed to observe X-rays from high-energy regions of the universe, such as the remnants of exploded stars. While most people remember, and know of the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra, Hubble and two other orbiting observatories were designed and launched by NASA as a total program to study the universe. STS-93 was the 95th space shuttle launched and the 26th launch of Columbia.
The mission saw Eileen Collins become the first female shuttle Commander and was Dr. Hawley’s final shuttle flight.