SpaceX launched its 45th mission of the year, carrying the Euclid telescope from the European Space Agency (ESA). Liftoff was Saturday, July 1, at 11:12 AM EDT (15:12 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Florida.
ESA’s Euclid will observe a large portion of the sky and deep into the past of the universe to understand the distribution and nature of dark matter and dark energy. The Euclid project is a medium-class mission as part of the agency’s Cosmic Vision science program and has a total cost of 1.4 billion euros.