Marshall Space Flight Center previous Spacelab missions were operated. The advent of the Space Shuttle made possible several major space programs in which MSFC had significant responsibilities. These were the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The latter three are part of NASA's series of Great Observatories; this series also includes the Spitzer Space Telescope, but this was not launched by a Space Shuttle and MSFC had no significant role in its development. A manned space station had long been in the plans of visionaries. Wernhar von Braun, in his widely read "Collier's Magazine"
Space Surveillance Telescope Space Surveillance Telescope The Space Surveillance Telescope is a telescope for detecting and tracking orbital debris. It has a 3.5 meter (138″) aperture mirror and came online in 2011. Two noted design features include Mersenne-Schmidt type optics and a curved CCD. In 2010s the telescope, which was in New Mexico, United States, was transferred to United States Air Force Space Command and moved to Australia. The discovery and tracking of space debris is noted as a growing problem in the 21st century. One problem is that among the 20-30 thousand large objects in orbit that are tracked, and an estimated