Overview of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT): Description and Performance Goals

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, GLAST, is an orbital mission in the final stages of construction designed 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. This talk will present an overview of the GLAST LAT instrument design and construction, including estimates of the performance that demonstrate the power of this new high-energy gamma-ray physics tool.