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.