In Brief:

• Chandra reaches final orbit, spectrometer operating
• Ocean-watching radar reveals typhoon's fury

August 6, 1999
Web posted at: 4:50 p.m. EDT (2050 GMT)

(CNN) -- A protective door on NASA's powerful X-ray telescope was opened Monday and engineers confirmed that Chandra is in its appropriate operating orbit.

With the $1.5 billion telescope in final position, engineers deactivated its internal thruster system.

"We're moving right along," said NASA's Chandra Program Manager Fred Wojtalik of the Marshall Space Flight Center. "Everything continues to go extremely well with activation of the world's most powerful X-ray telescope."

The flight team sent commands Sunday to open the door on Chandra's spectrometer, clearing the way for activation and testing of the instrument that will start taking images of powerful energy emissions throughout the universe later this month.

Currently, Chandra orbits Earth every 63 hours, reaching a high point of 139,188 km (86,487 miles) and dipping as close to Earth as 9,655 km (5,999 miles).

The spectrometer, in conjunction with the telescope's mirrors, will capture X-rays found at black holes, star formations, supernovae, neutron stars and dark matter.

The observatory, the heaviest shuttle payload ever, was successfully launched on-board the space shuttle Columbia on July 23 and released into space the next day.

(CNN) -- NASA's newly launched ocean-viewing radar instrument has collected data on the fury of Typhoon Olga as it packed winds of more than 57 mph last week in the China Sea and dropped torrential rains on North and South Korea.

Data from the SeaWinds radar instrument, which is flying onboard the recently launched QuikScat spacecraft, shows Typhoon Olga in its infancy, measuring daily wind speeds and direction as it progressed from a tropical depression on July 28, east of the Philippines, to a raging typhoon.

Olga flooded farmlands, shut down highways and railways and forced at least 15,000 people in Seoul, South Korea, to flee their homes last week.

SeaWinds is keeping a watchful eye over another tropical depression which has developed west of Mariana Island in the Pacific Ocean and is heading northwest toward Asia.

"SeaWinds is allowing scientists to determine the location, structure and strength of these tropical depressions, typhoons and severe marine storms very quickly as they develop," said Timothy Liu, QuikScat project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The satellite beams data to ground stations on Earth 15 times a day. That information is relayed to scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Early notification can help meteorologists and disaster preparedness services give people more warning of a storm's severity and likely path.

Since the beginning of its science mission, SeaWinds has performed beyond expectations, providing a near-global portrait of wind speeds around the world every day, said Jim Graf, QuikScat mission manager at JPL.

Want more? Go to previous In Brief