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Spitzer space telescope

Spitzer Space Telescope
Spitzer space telescope.jpg
Artist rendering of the Spitzer Space Telescope
Names Space Infrared Telescope Facility
Mission type Infrared space telescope
Operator NASA / JPL / Caltech
COSPAR ID 2003-038A
SATCAT № 27871
Website http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
Mission duration Planned: 2.5 to 5+ years
Primary mission: 5 years, 8 months, 19 days
Elapsed: 13 years, 4 months, 28 days
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer Lockheed
Ball Aerospace
Launch mass 950 kg (2,094 lb)
Dry mass 884 kg (1,949 lb)
Payload mass 851.5 kg (1,877 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 25 August 2003, 05:35:39 (2003-08-25UTC05:35:39) UTC
Rocket Delta II 7920H
Launch site Cape Canaveral SLC-17B
Entered service 18 December 2003
Orbital parameters
Reference system Heliocentric
Regime Earth-trailing
Eccentricity 0.02
Perihelion 0.98 AU
Apohelion 1.02 AU
Inclination
Period 363 days
Epoch 25 August 2003 04:35:00
Main telescope
Type Ritchey–Chrétien
Diameter 0.85 m (2.8 ft)
Focal length 10.2 m (33 ft)
Wavelengths infrared, 3.6–160 µm

NASA-SpitzerTelescope-Logo.svg


Great Observatories program
← Chandra

NASA-SpitzerTelescope-Logo.svg

The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. It is the fourth and final of the NASA Great Observatories program.

The planned mission period was to be 2.5 years with a pre-launch expectation that the mission could extend to five or slightly more years until the onboard liquid helium supply was exhausted. This occurred on 15 May 2009. Without liquid helium to cool the telescope to the very low temperatures needed to operate, most of the instruments are no longer usable. However, the two shortest-wavelength modules of the IRAC camera are still operable with the same sensitivity as before the cryogen was exhausted, and will continue to be used in the Spitzer Warm Mission. All Spitzer data, from both the primary and warm phases, are archived at the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA).

In keeping with NASA tradition, the telescope was renamed after its successful demonstration of operation, on 18 December 2003. Unlike most telescopes that are named after famous deceased astronomers by a board of scientists, the new name for SIRTF was obtained from a contest open to the general public.

The contest led to the telescope being named in honor of astronomer Lyman Spitzer, who had promoted the concept of space telescopes in the 1940s. Spitzer wrote a 1946 report for RAND Corporation describing the advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory and how it could be realized with available or upcoming technology. He has been cited for his pioneering contributions to rocketry and astronomy, as well as "his vision and leadership in articulating the advantages and benefits to be realized from the Space Telescope Program."


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