Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer ends mission after ‘listening’ to the universe

On May 1, NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer spacecraft reentered and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. Although not as well-known to the public as Hubble and Chandra, RXTE ranks among NASA’s most successful astrophysics missions. For the past 16 years RXTE continuously “listened” to the streams of X-ray radiation coming from black holes, neutron stars and pulsars.