Astrophysics

Spitzer

Completed

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Launched: 25 Aug 200305:35:39 UTC
Last contact: 30 Jan 2020
End declared: 30 Jan 2020
Duration: 16 years 5 months
Destinations: Heliocentric orbit

The last of NASA's Great Observatories, an infrared telescope that trailed the Earth around the Sun for 16 years. It studied young stars, distant galaxies and exoplanets, including the seven Earth-sized planets of TRAPPIST-1.

Milestones

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2005201020152020

Spacecraft

Spitzer Space Telescope

Telescope

Completed

Telescope with an 85 cm beryllium mirror, cooled at first by liquid helium and later by its shade alone.

Launch mass: 916 kg
Dry mass: 851 kg
Size: 4.5 m × 2.1 m, span 4.5 m
Power: Solar
Built by: Lockheed Martin
Last contact: 30 Jan 2020
End declared: 30 Jan 2020
Designator: 2003-038A

Mission details from science.nasa.gov.