GALEX: A mission to the stars

NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft was successfully launched on Monday, April 28, on a rocket released by an aircraft off the coast of Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Station. After the space observatory separated from the rocket’s third stage, it began circling Earth at an altitude of 429 miles. Led by principal investigator and Caltech professor of physics Christopher Martin and managed by JPL, the mission features an orbiting telescope that will observe millions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Its findings may help astronomers determine when the chemical elements originated and the stars seen today first blossomed.

After one month of in-orbit checkout, the science mission will begin, lasting up to 28 months. The mission’s ultraviolet detectors will home in on galaxies containing young, hot stars, helping scientists learn more about star formation.

The GALEX mission was developed under NASA’s Explorers Program, managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, is responsible for the spacecraft, integration and testing, ground data system and mission operations, and launch vehicle. Other partners include UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, France’s Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, and Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.
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