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Nancy Neal
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD      May 28, 2003
(Phone: 301-286-0039)

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-0880)

Release: 03-60

GALAXY MISSION HONORS COLUMBIA CREW WITH FIRST LIGHT

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has gathered its first celestial 
images, a "first light" milestone dedicated to the crew of the Space 
Shuttle Columbia.

The ultraviolet survey mission, launched on April 28 from Cape 
Canaveral, Fla, made the observations using its onboard telescope. To 
honor the contributions of the Columbia astronauts to scientific 
exploration, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer observed an area of the 
sky in the constellation Hercules. That region was directly above 
Columbia when it made its last contact to NASA Mission Control on 
February 1, over the skies of Texas. During the 16-day mission, the 
shuttle crew completed 82 science experiments.

"We're really pleased with the "first light" images captured by the 
telescope," said Dr. James Fanson, Galaxy Evolution Explorer project 
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.  The 
telescope has cameras tuned to two colors, the far and near 
ultraviolet.  The two "first light" images were obtained on the 
mornings of May 21 and May 22, respectively. Each comprises only four 
minutes of observing time, yet over 400 stars and star-forming 
galaxies appear in the far ultraviolet image and over 1,500 in the 
near ultraviolet image. As more data are gathered, astronomers expect 
the number of galaxies visible in the Hercules field will grow to 
many thousands. Over the course of the mission, planned for at least 
28 months, millions of galaxies may be observed.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer was the first NASA mission to launch 
since the Columbia accident. Its goal is to map the celestial sky in 
the ultraviolet and determine the history of star formation in the 
universe over the last 10 billion years.

The new images are available online at:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/galex

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission is led by the California 
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which is also responsible for 
science operations and data analysis. JPL, a division of Caltech, 
manages the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was 
developed under NASA's Explorers Program, managed by the Goddard 
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, 
Va., is responsible for the spacecraft, integration and testing, 
ground data system and mission operations, and the launch vehicle. 
Other partners include the University of California, Berkeley, which 
provided the ultraviolet detectors, as well as Johns Hopkins 
University, Baltimore, Md., and the Space Telescope Science 
Institute.  Key flight optics components were developed and 
contributed by France's Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille. 
Important test equipment and science operations software was 
developed and contributed by Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

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