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Last of the Great Observatories to Launch

Posted by michael on from the eye-in-the-sky dept.

jqpublic writes "The last in NASA's Great Observatory Program, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is set to launch in the wee hours on Monday. The launch can viewed live on NASA's Countdown web site. Interestingly, SIRTF will not be in Earth orbit, but will drift away from Earth by about 15 million kilometers per year. This allows the telescope to cool to very low temperatures (30K), which reduces dramatically the amount of cryogens it needs to carry."

5 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Norms Observation by Yanray · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe now we will finally be able to see that exact duplicate of the earth orbiting opposite us.

    Maybe thier they will all spell just like me.

    Could it be the Planet of the Apes?
    \. *.*

    --
    --"Sorry for the inconvience." Gods Last Words to his Creation
    DNA, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
  2. Re:It's new name... by baywulf · · Score: 3, Funny

    The only problem is that when they name it the Sagan telescope, Sagan will roll over in his grave and sue them. They will promptly have to rename it "butthead astromoner."

  3. 15 mil km/yr?1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    1000 mph is not exactly "drifting"....

    But, I guess on a solar system scale, it's not exactly speeding, either

  4. Re:It's new name... by faxafloi · · Score: 3, Informative

    The SIRTF Science Center had a contest to name SIRTF. They'll be announcing the name in a few months.

    --
    Exit, pursued by a bear.
  5. Re:Great Observatories by pla · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is HST the only Great Observatory being replaced?

    You have to keep in mind that NASA depends on public funding, and that "the public", not to mention the current US president, have absolutely no clue about what counts as good science vs smoke and mirrors.

    Hubble takes the most "pretty" pictures, thus people can ooh and aah over all the great "science" it does. Compton may have discovered features of our universe that blow away anything Hubble has done in terms of importance (such as the isotropism in GRBs), but how do you make that into a pretty picture? So, it gets axed, and we'll replace Hubble to create even more eye-candy for the public. Perhaps, if we get lucky, NASA can pad the budget on JW enough to launch a few "real" missions over its lifetime.

    Hmm, reading that, I sound overly critical of Hubble - I don't mean to, I realize it serves a number of very useful and scientifically-valid purposes. I just see its popularity (and the answer to your question) as relating more to its flashyness than to its utility.