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Galaxy Evolution Explorer
Launch: April 28, 2003
This mission uses ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation 80 percent of the way back to the Big Bang.
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Herschel Space Observatory
Planned Launch: 2008
The Herschel Space Observatory is a space-based telescope that will study the universe by the light of the far-infrared and submillimeter portions of the spectrum. JPL is making significant contributions to instruments on this European Space Agency mission.
Mission home page
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Infrared Astronomical Satellite
Launch: January 25, 1983
This satellite put an infrared telescope in orbit above the interference of Earth's atmosphere. The mission provided many unexpected findings, including the discovery of solid material around the stars Vega and Fomalhaut.
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Keck Interferometer
First light: March 2001
The Keck Interferometer links two 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The linked telescopes form the world's most powerful optical telescope system. They will be used to search for planets around nearby stars, as part of NASA's quest to find habitable, Earth-like planets.
Telescope home page
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Kepler Mission
Proposed Launch: 2009
The Kepler Mission will search for Earth-like planets with the "transit" method. A one-meter diameter (39-inch) telescope equipped with the equivalent of 42 high quality digital cameras will continuously monitor the brightness of 100,000 stars, looking for planets that cross the lines-of-sight between Kepler and their parent stars.
Mission home page
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Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer
First Light: 2008
Two 8-meter (26-foot) telescopes on Mount Graham, Arizona will be connected. The ground-based telescope system will identify faint dust clouds around other stars that might hinder planet-finding missions. The mission is managed by the University of Arizona, Tucson in conjunction with multipe international partners.
Mission home page
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Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
Proposed Launch: To be determined
This mission will observe gravitational waves from binary stars both inside and beyond our galaxy, including gravitational waves generated in the vicinity of the very massive black holes found in the centers of many galaxies. The mission will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle while traveling in space.
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Mid Infrared Instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope
Planned launch: 2013
The James Webb Space Telescope, an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope scheduled for launch in August 2013. The telescope is designed to study the earliest galaxies and some of the first stars formed after the Big Bang. JPL is managing the development of the Mid Infrared Instrument, one of the three focal plane istruments on the space telescope. Goddard Space Flight Center manages the space telescope mission for NASA.
Instrument home page
+ James Webb Space Telescope site
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Planck
Proposed Launch: 2008
Planck is a European Space Agency project to study the cosmic background. JPL is providing the following instrumentation: most or all of the detectors, both of the bolometers in the "high frequency" instrument and the heterodyne receivers in the "low frequency" instrument.
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Single Aperture Far-Infrared Observatory
Proposed Launch: 2015
The Single Aperture Far-Infrared Observatory is a large cryogenic space-based telescope optimized for observations in the mid-infrared to submillimeter wavelength range.
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Space Interferometry Mission
Proposed Launch: Deferred indefinitely
This mission is an orbiting interferometer, which will link multiple telescopes to function in unison as a much larger "virtual telescope." The main goal is to detect planets of varying sizes -- from huge planets the size of Jupiter down to planets a few times as massive as Earth.
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Space Technology 7
JPL manages a technology to fly on the European Lisa Pathfinder mission.
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Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry (Space VLBI)
Launch Date: February 1997
Japan's Very Long Baseline Interferometry Space Observatory Program spacecraft is an international mission to study the distant universe, including black holes. The spacecraft's onboard radio astronomy antenna observes with ground radio antennas, including NASA's Deep Space Network, to create the equivalent of a radio-observing telescope bigger than Earth.
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Spitzer Space Telescope
Launch: August 25, 2003, Eastern time (August 24, Pacific time)
Formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, this mission is using infrared technology to study celestial objects that are too cool, too dust-enshrouded or too far away to otherwise be seen. Spitzer, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, are all part of NASA's Great Observatories Program.
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Terrestrial Planet Finder
Proposed Launch: To be determined
This mission will use multiple telescopes working together to take family portraits of stars and their orbiting planets. It will also determine which planets may have the right chemistry for life.
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Wide Field and Planetary Camera
Launches: April 24, 1990; December 2, 1993
These two instruments have served as the main camera capturing pictures on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. When an optical flaw was discovered in Hubble's main mirror, JPL's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 corrected the space telescope's vision and saved the mission.
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Wide-field Infrared Explorer
Launch: March 4, 1999
The cryogenically cooled infrared telescope onboard this small satellite became unusable shortly after launch.
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Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
Planned Launch: 2009
This space-based telescope will scan the entire sky in infrared light, revealing cool stars, planetary construction zones and the brightest galaxies in the universe.
Mission home page
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