Spaceflight Now Home



Spaceflight Now +



Subscribe to Spaceflight Now Plus for access to our extensive video collections!
How do I sign up?
Video archive

Riding on Endeavour

Now you can take a virtual trip aboard shuttle Endeavour's recent launch thanks to video cameras mounted inside the ship's cockpit as well as outside on the twin solid rocket boosters and external tank.

 Full Coverage

Launch of Phoenix

The Phoenix lander bound for the northern plains of Mars is launched atop a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

 Full coverage

Phoenix animation

Project officials narrate animation of Phoenix's launch from Earth, arrival at Mars, touchdown using landing rockets and the craft's robot arm and science gear in action.

 Play

"The Time of Apollo"

This stirring 1970s documentary narrated by Burgess Meredith pays tribute to the grand accomplishments of Apollo as men left Earth to explore the Moon and fulfill President Kennedy's challenge to the nation.

 Play

"Apollo 17: On The Shoulders of Giants"

Apollo's final lunar voyage is relived in this movie. The film depicts the highlights of Apollo 17's journey to Taurus-Littrow and looks to the future Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and shuttle programs.

 Play

"Apollo 10: To Sort Out The Unknowns"

The May 1969 mission of Apollo 10 served as a final dress rehearsal before the first lunar landing later that summer. Stafford, Young and Cernan went to the moon to uncover lingering spacecraft problems that needed to be solved.

 Play

Traveling on Freedom 7

Fly with Alan Shepard during his historic journey into space with this documentary that takes the viewer along as an invisible companion to America's first astronaut.

 Play

Become a subscriber
More video



Spitzer marks anniversary with celestial fireworks
NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE
Posted: August 26, 2007

A newly expanded image of the Helix nebula lends a festive touch to the fourth anniversary of the launch of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. This spectacular object, a dying star unraveling into space, is a favorite of amateur and professional astronomers alike. Spitzer has mapped the expansive outer structure of the six-light-year-wide nebula, and probed the inner region around the central dead star to reveal what appears to be a planetary system that survived the star's chaotic death throes.


Helix nebula. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
 
Spitzer launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on August 25, 2003. In its four years of operations, Spitzer has provided unprecedented infrared views of objects as diverse as asteroids in our own solar system to galaxies at the edge of the observable universe. Recent discoveries include the first detection of water vapor on a planet orbiting another star and a titanic galactic collision five billion light-years away.

"With Spitzer, we have achieved scientific discoveries far beyond our wildest expectations," said Michael Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "A large part of our success is due to the smooth and efficient operations of the spacecraft."

Another cause for celebration is Spitzer's excellent technical performance. Spitzer is the first infrared space telescope to use an Earth-trailing orbit and passive cooling techniques, such as a sun shield, to obtain the low temperatures required for an infrared observatory. The design allowed for a much smaller tank of liquid-helium coolant, or cryogen, to chill the telescope, thereby slashing mission costs.

The minimum expected lifetime of Spitzer was only two-and-one-half years. Now, Spitzer's cryogen is expected to last much longer, giving the mission a lifetime of more than five-and-one-half years.

"I think it's safe to say that the novel Spitzer design has been validated," said Werner. "We've broken all records for the longest lifetime using the smallest amount of cryogen, and we still have another year and a half to go."

JPL is responsible for the operations of the Spitzer spacecraft, while science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft engineering is carried out by Lockheed Martin, Denver, Colo., with help from Ball Aerospace Corporation, Boulder, Colo.