" The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the astronomical research center responsible for operating the Hubble Space Telescope as an international observatory."

" The Hubble Space Telescope is a cooperative program of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to operate a long-lived space-based observatory for the benefit of the international astronomical community. " more

" Not since Galileo turned his telescope towards the heavens in 1610 has any event so changed our understanding of the universe as the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble orbits 600 kilometers (375 miles) above Earth, working around the clock to unlock the secrets of the Universe. It uses excellent pointing precision, powerful optics, and state-of-the-art instruments to provide stunning views of the Universe that cannot be made using ground-based telescopes or other satellites. (Track Hubble's path in orbit!)
Hubble was originally designed in the 1970s and launched in 1990. Thanks to on-orbit service calls by the Space Shuttle astronauts, Hubble continues to be a state-of-the-art, model year 2001 space telescope...." more

Chandra X-ray Observatory NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia in July of 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. Chandra is designed to observe X-rays from high energy regions of the universe, such as the remnants of exploded stars. Chandra-Harvard

" The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) consists of three spacecraft flying 5 million kilometers (km) apart in the shape of an equilateral triangle as shown above. The center of the triangle formation will be in the ecliptic plane 1 AU from the Sun and 20 degrees behind the Earth. The main objective of the LISA mission is to observe gravitational waves from galactic and extra-galactic binary systems, including gravitational waves generated in the vicinity of the very massive black holes found in the centers of many galaxies. Gravitational waves are one of the fundamental building blocks of our theoretical picture of the universe. Although there is strong indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves, they have not yet been directly detected... "

" The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) was launched into space by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 25 August 2003. During its 2.5-year mission, Spitzer will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of 3 and 180 microns (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter). Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.
Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three cryogenically-cooled science instruments, Spitzer is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its highly sensitive instruments give us a unique view of the Universe and allow us to peer into regions of space which are hidden from optical telescopes. " ... more