Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

After a search for an outside funding source turned up empty, NASA plans to end observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope in January to conclude a 16-year mission that discovered exoplanets, studied galaxies in the ancient universe, and peered at planets and asteroids in our own solar system.

The quartet is set to liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, July 31. Their Dragon spacecraft, Endeavour, will fly for a record-setting sixth time.

In keeping with the agency’s strict medical privacy policy, NASA officials have not identified the astronaut in question or provided any details about the nature of the medical issue.