Von Karman Lecture

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) will carry into orbit the first astronomical telescope capable of focusing high energy X-rays. Enabled by recent advances in technology, this small Explorer mission will provide a combination of sensitivity, imaging and energy resolving power a factor ten to one hundred times better than any previous mission that has operated in the high-energy X-ray band. NuSTAR will find black holes, neutron stars and other exotic objects in dusty regions of the Universe obscured from view in the optical and low-energy X-ray bands. NuSTAR will also study radiation from exploding stars and their remnants to help us understand the processes that drive the explosion and produce many of the elements in the Universe. After being launched from under the wing of an airplane in the South Pacific, NuSTAR will begin its scientific observing program in 2012.