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The Chandra X-ray Observatory is unloaded from an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transporter two days after landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility on Feb. 4. The observatory sits cradled in the cargo hold of a tractor-trailer rig called the Space Cargo Transportation System, which closely resembles the size and shape of the Shuttle cargo bay. In the background (right) is the mate- demate device, used when an orbiter is returned to KSC on the back of a Shuttle carrier aircraft. Over the next few months, Chandra will undergo final tests and be mated to a Boeing- provided Inertial Upper Stage for launch July 9 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, on mission STS-93 . Formerly called the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, Chandra comprises three major elements: the spacecraft, the science instrument module (SIM), and the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. Chandra will allow scientists from around the world to see previously invisible black holes and high-temperature gas clouds, giving the observatory the potential to rewrite the books on the structure and evolution of our universe.