ESA's Euclid Embarks on a Momentous Journey to Unravel the Mystery of Dark Matter and Dark Energy

At 11:12 AM ET, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket took to the Florida skies from SLC-40 with ESA's Euclid Telescope onboard. This mission, a rather unique one to add to the now seemingly never-ending list of SpaceX launches, saw F9 loft Euclid to an L2 orbit, the same orbit as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, and a first-of-its-kind mission for SpaceX.

Countdown

SpaceX's countdowns seem all but routine at this point, but in case you need a refresher, this will be a quick reminder of the flow Falcon takes prior to launch. At T-38 minutes, teams conducted polling for launch. In this polling, teams from every aspect of the vehicle and GSE were polled to verify readiness for an on-time launch. After the go from the launch director was given, the launch auto sequence began at T-35 minutes which also began RP-1 loading on Stage 1 and Stage 2, as well as LOX loading on Stage 1. At T-16 minutes, Stage 2 began its own LOX loading, kicking off the final loading sequence for launch. At T-7 minutes, Stage 1 began engine chill, a sequence which flows LOX through the Merlin 1D turbopumps to avoid shock when the full flow of LOX enters the engine at ignition. At T-1 minute, Falcon 9 entered startup, and this is when flight computers took over the count. At T-3 seconds, the 9 M1D engines on the First stage begin a staggered ignition sequence and are brought up to full power in about 2-3 seconds. At T-0, the hold-down clamps were released and F9 began its first journey to L2 orbit. At T+01:14, F9 experienced Max-Q, which is the moment of greatest aerodynamic stress on the vehicle. Following main engine cutoff of the M1D engines, the 2 stages separated and Stage 2 lit its single M1D vacuum engine at T+02:48 minutes. Shortly after, the fairing halves deployed exposing the Euclid Telescope to space for the first time. Switching gears to the first stage descent and landing, the stage conducted 2 burns to bring itself to a successful landing on SpaceX's drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Following a nominal entry burn, the stage lit its center engine, E9, for a landing burn, followed by landing leg deployment, and a perfect landing on the deck at T+08:31 minutes. While Stage 1 was landing, Stage 2 SECO occurred at T+08:03 minutes which placed the stage and Telescope in a parking orbit. Following a brief coast, the second stage relit at T+17:10 minutes into flight for a 1-minute and 18-second burn that would send the Euclid Telescope off to its L2 orbit. Deployment of the telescope occurred at T+40:58 minutes, with an AOS from ESA controllers a few minutes later.

The Mission

Per ESA, the mission of Euclid is "designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. The space telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter." (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid).

Euclid is outfitted with 2 main instruments, the VIS (VISible Instrument) and the NISP (Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer). The point of the VIS is to physically take the photos that Euclid will see through the usage of 36 CCDs (Charged Coupled Devices, which are a type of camera processor), which gives the detector a total of around 600 megapixels, or for those who want to think more literally- Seventy 4k resolution screens. The purpose of the NISP is to detect how much light galaxies emit. It has the largest field of view ever flown in space for an infrared instrument, and uses a grid of 16 detectors, measuring 2040 by 2040 pixels.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Euclid will begin to power on instruments and other key components such as its radiator that will keep Euclid cool from the sun's radiation. After about 4 weeks, all instruments will be on, the telescope will be aligned, and will also be fully cooled down to operating temperatures. In the timeframe from 1-3 months after launch, Euclid will begin testing all of its various equipment and prove that it is ready to begin its primary mission. And then, at around L+3 months, Euclid will do just that, and begin bringing light onto the mystery of dark matter.

“The successful launch of Euclid marks the beginning of a new scientific endeavour to help us answer one of the most compelling questions of modern science,” says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

"There have been many challenges during the project, but we have worked hard and now we have successfully reached this launch milestone together with our partners in the Euclid Consortium and NASA.", Giuseppe Racca, ESA’s Euclid Project Manager.

Stay tuned to TLP as we track Euclid's journey to L2 orbit!