Celestron has experienced impressive growth over the years, since Tom Johnson sold the company in 1980. Between 1980 and 2002 there were a couple of changes in ownership of the company. In 2002 three of Celestron's senior management team purchased the assets of Celestron and initiated a whole new era for Celestron. Under this ownership the company expanded distribution channels and product offerings, and launched the observatory-class CGE Series of computerized equatorial telescopes. In April of 2005, SW Technology Corporation, current owner acquired the company. Celestron was provided access to a supply chain network with state of the art technology and many years of technical and manufacturing experiences. Backed with these competitive advantages, Celestron is now able to concentrate its resources towards offering an unprecedented level of customer satisfaction and a wide range of products to the market place. Throughout the world, Celestron telescopes have become the "telescope of choice" for the consumer that can differentiate between brands. Major colleges and universities worldwide use Celestron telescopes in their astronomy programs. Moreover, its solid and esteemed reputation in the scientific community has reached NASA, who selected Celestron's C5 telescope as the telescope to be taken on several space shuttle research missions