Spitzer Space Telescope Launch
NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) lifted off from Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on August 25 at 1:35:39 a.m. EDT. SIRTF, renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope after launch, obtained images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three cryogenically cooled science instruments, SIRTF was the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space at the time. The fourth and final element of NASA’s family of orbiting “Great Observatories,” its highly sensitive instruments allowed us to peer into regions of space that are hidden from optical telescopes.
Operations ended on January 30, 2020.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: KSC-03pp2427
Date: August 25, 2003
Spitzer Space Telescope Launch
NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) lifted off from Launch Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on August 25 at 1:35:39 a.m. EDT. SIRTF, renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope after launch, obtained images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three cryogenically cooled science instruments, SIRTF was the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space at the time. The fourth and final element of NASA’s family of orbiting “Great Observatories,” its highly sensitive instruments allowed us to peer into regions of space that are hidden from optical telescopes.
Operations ended on January 30, 2020.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: KSC-03pp2427
Date: August 25, 2003