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General Information |
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The Spitzer Space Telescope is the fourth and final element in
NASA's family of Great Observatories and represents an important
scientific and technical bridge to NASA's Astronomical Search for
Origins program. The Observatory carries an 85-centimeter cryogenic
telescope and three cryogenically cooled science instruments capable of
performing imaging and spectroscopy in the 3.6 to 160 micron range.
Spitzer was launched on a Delta 7920H from Cape Canaveral into an
Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit in August 2003. While the Spitzer
cryogenic lifetime requirement is 2.5 years of normal operations,
which was passed on April 26, 2006, current estimates indicate an
expected cryogenic lifetime of about 5 1/2 years. For more
overview information, see the
Observatory & Instruments Overview page or the main Spitzer public
website.
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help@spitzer.caltech.edu http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/geninfo/