A NASA telescope is available for purchase on Craigslist. The telescope ships worldwide, as long as you’ve got $10 million to buy it with.
This telescope was aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia when it was launched in 1990. There were three other telescopes on the shuttle, too. Each of them were used for different things. Three out of the four telescopes were used to detect and measure ultraviolet rays. The other was used to observe x-rays. Overall, the telescopes made a total of 231 observations on 130 unique space objects.
Since their 90s space trip, three of the four telescopes have gone on display at the National Air and Space Museum. The fourth telescope is the one that is currently for sale. It’s officially called the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT). It originally took NASA $40 million to create the telescope. A collector acquired the BBXRT in 2003 at an auction for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Now, it’s on sale for a fourth of its original creation price.
The BBXRT was previously bought by the CEO of an aerospace contracting company, John Urciolo. Since he bought it in 2003, the BBXRT has been stored in a shipping container, complete with a custom-made dolly. His Craigslist ad says that the telescope is the “largest flown space artifact” that’s privately owned.
NASA Successfully Launches James Webb Space Telescope
NASA just recently had a new telescope enter space. The James Webb Space Telescope officially entered space on Christmas Day. Three space agencies have been working together on the telescope. NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency have all had a part to play in this impressive piece of technology. Decades of research have led up to this telescope reaching space. It’s the largest, most powerful, and most expensive telescope that has ever been created.
Now, the telescope will spend the next five to ten years in space. During that time, it will study the formations of some of our earliest galaxies. Hopefully, by comparing our galaxy to earlier galaxies, we will learn more about how our solar system came to be.
The James Webb Space Telescope project started not too long after BBXRT was launched. In 1996, scientists began to work on the telescope. Back then it was called the Next Generation Space Telescope, but in 2002 they decided to rename it. If the name James Webb sounds familiar to you, it’s because he spearheaded NASA in the 60s. He was also involved with launching an Apollo program that landed on the moon.
The telescope was finally finished in 2016 after many expensive delays and setbacks. Even though it was technically finished, it took scientists up until now to make sure that the launch would go perfectly. And it did! This one’s for you, James Webb.