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SpaceX will launch an Earth orbit astrophysics mission for NASA.
NASA has chosen the spaceflight company to launch the SPHEREx mission (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer), announced Thursday, February 4, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the NASA in California.
329 pounds (178 kg) The spacecraft will fly into space aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, scheduled for launch in early June 2024, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA’s Launch Services Program will manage the launch at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory remains responsible for overall project management, systems engineering, integration, testing and mission operations for the mission and agency officials said in a statement.
Related: NASA to launch new space telescope in 2023 to explore the universe
SPHEREx is a space observatory and the newest middle-class vehicle in NASA’s Explorers program for astrophysics expeditions. Other mid-class NASA spacecraft in this mission group include TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and ICON (The Ionospheric Connection Explorer), which studies the Earth’s ionosphere – the region of our planet’s atmosphere. where Earth’s time meets time. Space. .
The probe is expected to spend two years scanning the sky in near infrared light and performing a full survey every six months.
This light is not visible to us humans with the naked eye, but it could allow the craft to see and observe distant galaxies. With the data from the spacecraft, scientists aim to conduct a comprehensive study of the sky that measures the unique signatures of more than 300 million galaxies across the universe and 100 million stars in our Milky Way, creating a map of the single sky.
Not only will the spacecraft map these distant destinations, it will also look for signs of water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries – regions of star formation rich in interstellar gas and dust – and in discs of material in orbit around the stars where planets can form. . By researching the water and organic molecules that make life as we know it possible on Earth, scientists can explore the possibility of living further from home.
Related: Scientists have mapped a million new galaxies in 300 hours
“This incredible mission will be a treasure trove of unique data for astronomers,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate director of NASA’s Directorate of Science Missions, said in NASA’s 2019 statement. “It will present an unprecedented galactic map containing ‘fingerprints’ from the history of the universe. And we will have new evidence for one of science’s greatest mysteries: What prompted the universe to expand at speeds below a nanosecond after the Big Bang?
The mission will cost NASA around $ 98.8 million, including this launch service with SpaceX, plus “other mission-related costs,” according to NASA JPL. The mission is funded by the Astrophysics Division of the NASA Science Missions Directorate, located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Email Chelsea Gohd at [email protected] Or follow her on Twitter @chelseagohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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