-PHOTO TAKEN 09JAN02-Wearing laser protective eyeglasses, Dr. Fred Raab, observatory head at the LIGO Hanford Observatory in Hanford, Washington, inspects the steel tubes that house the observatory's four-kilometer long laser apparatuses, January 9, 2002. LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, has the mission to observe gravitational waves of cosmic origin including those created by black holes, star collisions and remnants of gravitational radiation created by the "big-bang" birth of the universe. The LIGO Hanford facility houses laser interferometers consisting of mirrors suspended at each of the corners of a gigantic L-shaped vaccum system measuring four kilometers on each side. LIGO Hanford is part of a $370 National Science Foundation project focused at researching these gravitational waves.