Chandra X-ray Observatory is a Flagship-class space telescope and named after the Nobel Prize-winning Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Shoemaker, who himself could have become the first geologist-astronaut to join the Apollo moon flight, however, could not turn his moon dream into a reality as he was diagnosed with Addison's disease.
"In a situation like this we can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engines. Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don't know what", said ROSCOSMOS chief Dmitry Rogozin.