NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) was launched by a Boeing Delta II booster from Cape Canaveral on 30 June, on a mission to record cosmic microwave radiation from the early universe.
MAP will execute a gravity-assisted fly-by of the moon from its elliptical Earth orbit, directing it into a position in space four times further from the Earth than the moon, in the opposite direction to the sun. From this L2 orbit it will have an unobstructed view of the sky, free from near-Earth disturbances such as magnetic field and microwave emissions, for its two-year mission. Cosmic microwave background radiation is the radiant heat left over from what is suspected by scientists to have been the "Big Bang" which created the universe about 14 billion years ago. This radiation was first observed in 1965 using Earth-bound instruments and observed in detail by the NASA spacecraft Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) launched in 1992.
MAP will record temperature fluctuations on the cosmic background radiation with much higher resolution, sensitivity and accuracy than COBE.
| SATELLITE AND SPACECRAFT LAUNCHES JUNE 2001 | ||||||
| No | Date | Spacecraft | Type | Launcher | Country | Launch |
| 23 | 8 June | Cosmos 2378 | Navsat | Cosmos 3M | Russia | Plesetsk |
| 24 | 9 June | Intelsat 901 | Comsat | Ariane 44L | Europe | Kourou |
| 25 | 16 June | Astra 2C | Comsat | Proton K | Russia | Baikonur |
| 26 | 19 June | ICO | Comsat | Atlas IIAS | USA | Canaveral |
| 27 | 30 June | MAP | Science | Delta II | USA | Canaveral |
| Last Satellite Launch Log: Flight International, 12-18 June 2001 | ||||||
Source: Flight International
