The GLAST Gamma‐Ray Telescope Mission

The Gamma‐ray Large Area Space Telescope, GLAST, is an orbital mission under construction to measure the cosmic gamma‐ray flux in the energy range 20 MeV to >300 GeV, with supporting measurements for gamma‐ray bursts from 10 keV to 25 MeV. With its launch in 2007, GLAST will open a new and important window on a wide variety of high energy phenomena, including black holes and active galactic nuclei; gamma‐ray bursts; the origin of cosmic rays and supernova remnants; and searches for hypothetical new phenomena such as supersymmetric dark‐matter annihilations, Lorentz‐invariance violation, and exotic relics from the Big Bang. In addition to a short review of the science opportunities, this talk will describe the high‐energy gamma‐ray telescope and its components and review the mission status.