On August 26, 2008, NASA announced that GLAST, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, has been renamed the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The new name honors Professor Enrico Fermi a pioneer in high-energy physics who died in 1954. "Enrico Fermi was the first person to suggest how cosmic particles could be accelerated to high speeds," said Paul Hertz, chief scientist for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "His theory provides the foundation for understanding the new phenomena his namesake telescope will discover."
Scientists expect the Fermi telescope will discover many new pulsars in our own galaxy, reveal powerful processes near supermassive black holes at the cores of thousands of active galaxies and enable a search for signs of new physical laws. For two months following the spacecraft's June 11 launch, scientists tested and calibrated its two instruments, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM).