Exploring the universe with MSFC x-ray optics

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is world renown for the development and flight of full-shell x-ray optics. High-value NASA missions, such as the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Experiment (IXPE) and the Russian-German-led Astronomical Roentgen Telescope – X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory, have benefitted from these optics; contributing significantly to our understanding of the Universe. Smaller suborbital and ground-based efforts that use MSFC optics are pushing the limits of the state of the art in terms of angular resolution performance and novel applications. Looking toward future missions, MSFC has an active research program focused on achieving sub arcsecond x-ray mirror modules for spaceflight within this decade. Significant science achievements from on-going missions will be presented, along with a status on research developments and a summary of MSFC x-Ray optics capabilities.