From: baalke@zagami.jpl.nasa.gov   
      
   Frank O'Donnell (818) 354-7170   
   Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.   
      
   Donald Savage (202) 358-1547   
   NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.   
      
   News Release: 2003-117   
   August 25, 2003   
      
   Space Infrared Telescope Facility Lifts Off   
      
   NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility successfully launched from   
   Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:35:39 a.m. Eastern   
   Daylight Time (10:35:39 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, August 24) aboard   
   a Delta II launch vehicle.   
      
   Flying eastward over the Atlantic Ocean, the new observatory entered   
   an Earth-trailing orbit the first of its kind at about 43 minutes   
   after launch. Five minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the   
   Delta's second and final stage. At about 2:28 a.m. Eastern Daylight   
   Time (11:28 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, Aug. 22), 53 minutes after   
   take-off, the NASA Deep Space Network station in Canberra, Australia   
   received the first signal from the telescope.   
      
   "All systems are operating smoothly, and we couldn't be more   
   delighted," said David Gallagher, project manager for the mission at   
   NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.   
      
   The last of NASA's suite of Great Observatories, the Space Infrared   
   Telescope Facility will use infrared detectors to pierce the dusty   
   darkness enshrouding many of the universe's most fascinating objects,   
   including brown dwarfs, planet-forming debris discs around stars and   
   distant galaxies billions of light years away. Past Great   
   Observatories include the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray   
   Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.   
      
   The two-and-one-half to five-year mission is an important bridge to   
   NASA's Origins Program, which seeks to answer the questions: "Where   
   did we come from? Are we alone?"   
      
   In-orbit checkout and calibration is scheduled to last 60 days,   
   followed by a 30-day science verification period, after which the   
   observatory is expected to begin its regular science mission.   
      
   For more information about the Space Infrared Telescope Facility,   
   visit their Web site at http://sirtf.caltech.edu/ .   
      
      
   -end-   
      
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