NASA Launches New Mission to Explore Universe’s Most Dramatic Objects.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2021 – NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission launched at 1 a.m. EST Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The IXPE Observatory is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying the polarization of X-rays from the universe’s most extreme and mysterious things – supernova remnants, supermassive black holes, and dozens of other high-energy objects. It is a cooperative effort with the Italian Space Agency.
“IXPE represents another extraordinary first,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Together with our partners in Italy and around the world, we’ve added a new space observatory to our fleet that will shape our understanding of the universe for years to come. Each NASA spacecraft is carefully chosen to target brand new observations enabling new science, and IXPE is going to show us the violent universe around us – such as exploding stars and the black holes at the center of galaxies – in ways we’ve never been able to see it.”
The rocket operated as planned, with the spacecraft separation occurring 33 minutes into the flight. The spacecraft’s solar arrays were unfurled about a minute later. At a height of around 372 miles, IXPE began its orbit around the Earth’s equator (600 kilometers). Mission controllers received the first spacecraft telemetry data about 40 minutes after launch.
“It is an indescribable feeling to see something you’ve worked on for decades become real and launch into space,” said Martin Weisskopf, IXPE’s principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Weisskopf came up with the idea for the spacecraft and has conducted seminal experiments in X-ray astronomy since the 1970s. “This is just the beginning for IXPE. We have much work ahead. But tonight, we celebrate!”
IXPE carries three state-of-the-art space telescopes with special polarization-sensitive detectors. Polarization is a property of light that holds clues to the environment from which the light originates. The new mission builds on and complements the scientific discoveries of other telescopes, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s flagship X-ray telescope. First light operations are scheduled to begin in January.
NASA Marshall oversees the IXPE mission, which is part of NASA’s Explorers Program, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. IXPE is a joint venture between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, as well as partners and providers from 12 other countries. The three X-ray telescopes were built by Marshall. IXPE’s polarization detectors were provided by the Italian Space Agency. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado, and spacecraft operations are managed by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The Explorers Program is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
For more information about the IXPE mission, visit: