Last of NASA’s Great Observatories Launched by 300th Delta Rocket

Photo by Carleton Bailie © The Boeing Company

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. August 25, 2003 — Boeing today successfully launched NASA’s Space Infrared Telescope Facility, or SIRTF, aboard a Delta II Heavy launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

Liftoff occurred on schedule at an instantaneous launch window of 1:35:39 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 17B. Telemetry data indicated that the launch vehicle successfully deployed SIRTF to a solar orbit.

SIRTF is the last of NASA’s Great Observatories program, which includes the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-Ray and Compton Gamma Ray Observatories. SIRTF will enable researchers from around the world to learn more about the formation of the universe.