In the Dark

Today’s the day! Weather permitting, of course, all eyes will be on Cape Canaveral for the launch of the Euclid satellite later this afternoon (as reckoned in Ireland). You can watch the launch on YouTube via the following stream (but it won’t start until 15.30 Irish Time; 16.30 CEST):

The Key Events to look for in local time are:

16:12 Euclid launch on SpaceX Falcon 9
16:53 Separation of Euclid from Falcon 9
16:57 Earliest expected time to establish communication with Euclid

After that, the mission is handed over to the ESA Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany as it sets out for the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. Approximately four weeks after launch, Euclid will enter in orbit around this point, which is located at 1.5 million km from Earth, in the opposite direction from the Sun. Once in orbit, mission operators will start verifying all the functions of the telescope. During this, residual water is outgassed, after which Euclid’s instruments will be turned on. Between one and three months after launch, Euclid will go through several calibrations and scientific performance tests and get ready for science. The telescope begins its early phase of the survey of the Universe three months after launch. There will be a preliminary release of a small amount of data in December 2024, but the first full data release – DR1 – will take about two years.

UPDATE: All critical stages of the launch passed satisfactorily, and contact has been established with the ground control. Euclid is now on its way to L2. Bon Voyage, Euclid!

This entry was posted on July 1, 2023 at 11:15 am and is filed under Euclid, The Universe and Stuff with tags ESA Euclid, Euclid, Falcon-9, SpaceX. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.