NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

Euclid Telescope

Launch Time
Sat Jul 01, 2023 15:12 UTC

Due to the current geopolitical situation, Roscosmos has decided to suspend all Soyuz-ST launch campaigns in France, "in response to EU sanctions against our companies", said Dmitry Rogozin. It is impossible at the moment to estimate when the campaigns will resume, nor whether they will resume, or be cancelled.

In October 2022, ESA announced this mission would now be launched on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket instead of a Soyuz rocket.

Rocket

Falcon 9 Block 5
Image Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX
Status: Active
Price: $69.75 million
Liftoff Thrust: 7,607 kN
Payload to LEO: 22,800 kg
Payload to GTO: 8,300 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 70.0 m
Fairing Diameter: 5.2 m
Fairing Height: 13.0 m

Vehicles

A Shortfall of Gravitas

B1080

Flight #2
41 day turnaround
215th Falcon recovery attempt
203rd successful Falcon recovery
130th consecutive successful Falcon landing and recovery

Mission Details

Euclid

Euclid is an ESA mission to map the geometry of the dark Universe. The mission will investigate the distance-redshift relationship and the evolution of cosmic structures. It achieves this by measuring shapes and redshifts of galaxies and clusters of galaxies out to redshifts ~2, or equivalently to a look-back time of 10 billion years. It will therefore cover the entire period over which dark energy played a significant role in accelerating the expansion.

It will be about 4.5 meters tall and 3.1 meters in 'diameter' (with appendages stowed). The nominal mission lifetime is six years.
A large-amplitude (~ 1 × 106 km) halo orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system (L2) has been selected because it offers optimum operating conditions for Euclid: a benign radiation environment, which is necessary for the sensitive detectors and very stable observing conditions, which are sufficiently far away from the disturbing Earth-Moon system. In addition, the amount of propellant necessary is very favourable compared to alternative orbits.

Thales Alenia was selected in June 2013 to build the spacecraft. EADS Astrium was selected to provide the science module including the telescope. The propulsion system will be built by OHB Sweden.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 1,921.0 kg
Sun–Earth L2

Location

SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Stats

2023

98th orbital launch attempt

SpaceX

248th mission
44th mission of 2023
242nd successful mission
214th consecutive successful mission

Falcon 9

237th mission
42nd mission of 2023
234th successful mission
208th consecutive successful mission