Northrup-Grumman Staff ask for Chandra X-Ray Models as Keepsakes

Back in 2003, I received a call from a contractor who had worked with Northrop-Grumman on the construction of the Chandra X-Ray satellite. He was the fellow who was assigned to monitor the project from the Department of Defence.

He had discovered me through my website and asked me if I could do a model of the Chandra X-ray satellite that he and some of the others who had worked on the project could have as a keepsake.

That sounded like a fun project and I was happy to take it on. Once we’d worked out the details he approached the staff at Northrup-Grumman and asked who would be interested in getting a keepsake Chandra X-ray model of their own.

When all was said and done, the final count was for more than 70 models.

Whoa!

It was the first contract I accepted for such a large quantity of models and it turned out to be an enormous project. Building the model Chandra X-Ray Observatory was a complicated piece of business. We even created an aperture that opened so you could see the secondary camera lens inside the satellite.

All in all, the project took us almost a year to complete. But it was a pleasure to do, especially when we heard about how happy the Northrop-Grumman staff were with the models. Pretty high praise coming from the people who actually built the Chandra X-Ray Observatory!