NASA's fourth and final Great Observatory-series spacecraft was launched by the second Boeing Delta II Heavy booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 25 August. The $1.2 billion Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), built by Lockheed Martin, consists of a 0.85m (2.8ft)-diameter telescope with three cryogenically cooled science instruments.
The 950kg (2,100lb) SIRTF will spend 30 months observing and imaging objects either too cool, too shrouded by dust or too distant to observe using the visible, gamma-ray and X-ray wavelengths observed by the other Great Observatory craft - Hubble, Compton and Chandra, respectively - launched between 1990 and 1999. SIRTF will pierce the thick dust that permeates the universe, enabling it to look farther out in space, and back in time, than previously possible.
Objects of most interest will be planetary construction zones, dusty discs around nearby stars, and the search for Earth-like planets. Unlike its three predecessors, SIRTF has been placed into a hybrid orbit slightly greater than escape velocity, allowing the craft to trail the Earth in its solar orbit. This enables the telescope to have an uninterrupted view of a large portion of the sky.
Orbital Recovery is proposing its Spacecraft Life Extension System space tug to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope by boosting its orbit or moving the craft into an orbit that would enable a rendezvous with the International Space Station for in-orbit servicing (Flight International, 26 August-1 September).Source: Flight International
