NASA administrator Daniel Goldin has authorised the start of work on the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), which is to be launched aboard a Delta II booster in December 2001 as the fourth in a series of Great Observatories.
SIRTF will follow the Hubble Space Telescope (1990), the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (1991), and the X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, which will be launched by the Space Shuttle STS 93 in December.
The new $458 million telescope "-will do for infrared astronomy what the Hubble Space Telescope has done in its unveiling of the visible Universe", NASA said.
Many objects, such as black holes and quasars, are veiled behind cosmic curtains of dust and can only be detected in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that will be viewed by SIRTF's instruments.
Lockheed Martin will be SIRTF prime contractor, with Ball Aerospace of Boulder, Colorado, providing the cryogenic telescope assembly. The SIRTF is being developed on a quick schedule, using new technologies, an "innovative mission design" and a small launch vehicle.
Source: Flight International