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NASA News 
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration

John F. Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899
AC 321-867-2468
_____________________________________________________________________
For Release: April 28, 2003

Nancy Neal                                                                 
                
NASA Headquarters                                                                  
202/358-2369          

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center
321/867-2468

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
818//354-0880

Barron Beneski
Orbital Sciences Corporation
703/406-5528

KSC Release No. 33-03

GALAXY EVOLUTION EXPLORER ON ITS WAY

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft was successfully launched
today from a Pegasus XL rocket released by an L-1011 aircraft off the
coast of Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station at 7:59:57 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time (4:59:57 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time). 

The mission features an orbiting telescope that will observe millions
of galaxies across 10-billion years of cosmic history.  Its findings
may help astronomers determine when the chemical elements originated
and the stars we see today first blossomed.

After the space observatory separated from the rocket's third stage -
at 11 minutes and 5 seconds after release from the L-1011 carrier
aircraft -- it entered into Earth orbit at an altitude of 690
kilometers (429 miles).  The spacecraft's signal was acquired at
about 8:21 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (5:21 Pacific Daylight Time) by
the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. At 8:45 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time (5:45 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time), the satellite
deployed its solar arrays and locked on to the Sun.  A tracking
station near Perth, Australia then acquired the spacecraft's signal
at 8:54 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (5:54 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time). 

After one month of in-orbit checkout, the science mission will begin.
It will last for up to 28 months. 

The mission's ultraviolet detectors will hone in on galaxies
containing young, hot, short-lived stars that emit a great deal of
ultraviolet energy.  Because these galaxies are actively creating
stars, studying them will help scientists learn more about how, when
and why stars form inside galaxies. 

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission is led by the California
Institute of Technology, which is also responsible for science
operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., 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; as well as Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Md., and its 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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