SpaceX is targeting no sooner than July 1st at 11:11 a.m. ET (15:11 UTC) for the launch of the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Originally meant to launch on a Russian Soyuz 2.1 rocket, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine forced the ESA’s hand to vary launch providers, then in October 2022, chosen a SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch the telescope.
Euclid will probably be launched 1.5 million km from Earth to Lagrange Point 2, the identical area where NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope resides. Euclid will probably be used to create a 3D map of the universe, using time because the third dimension. The telescope will collect data in each visible and infrared light seeing way back to 10 billion light-years.
![](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Euclid_s_journey_to_L2.jpg)
Euclid’s journey to L2 (Credit European Space Agency)
This will probably be the 2nd furthest mission SpaceX has initially launched, behind only the DART mission, which was sent 11 million km to intercept the asteroid moon Dimorphos.
Euclid arrived via ship from Cannes, France to Port Canaveral, Florida on May third after which delivered to Astrotech for fueling. The spacecraft was stuffed with 140 kg of hydrazine and 70 kg of nitrogen on June sixteenth, it will provide enough fuel for a 6-year mission. It was then mounted onto the Falcon 9 payload adapter on June twenty third and will probably be encapsulated within the Falcon 9 payload fairings this week if not already accomplished.
#ICYMI: we will probably be broadcasting live as @ESA_Euclid, is targeted to launch at 16:11 BST/17:11 CEST on 1 July.
A back-up launch date of Sunday 2 July 2023 is foreseen.
follow along? See here for details👉 https://t.co/DxAmCabCWm pic.twitter.com/y4W5A4bExp
— ESA (@esa) June 24, 2023
After its launch atop the Falcon 9, Euclid will use its 10 hydrazine-fueled thrusters to go to Lagrange Point 2, which is able to take ~30 days and once it has arrived, the 6 nitrogen cold gas thrusters will probably be utilized by the spacecraft to take care of a stable platform for capturing images.
Euclid isn’t the one mission that was switched to a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. HERA, a mission to review the results of the DART impact on Dimorphos, was switched from ESA’s latest Ariane 6 rocket that has been delayed to late 2023 on the earliest.