ESA’s Euclid spacecraft finished its ocean cruise safe and sound on 30 April at Port Canaveral in Florida. Subsequently, the satellite was moved by road to the Astrotech facility near Cape Canaveral.
After the transport container is opened, Euclid moves to a cleanroom. The coming month the satellite’s subsystems will be tested. After the final checks, Euclid will be mounted on top of its launch vehicle.
Euclid will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, no earlier than July, before starting its 1.5 million km journey to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. In orbit, Euclid will map billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light years, across more than one third of the sky.
By Orbit Type (LEO, MEO, GEO, Others), by Architecture (Transparent Payload, Regenerative Payload), by Service Type (Fixed Satellite Service, Mobile Satellite Service, Broadband Satellite Service, Others), by End-User (Telecommunication, Government, Defense, Aviation, Others) and Region, with Forecasts from 2025 to 2034
Download free sample pagesThe Euclid mission aims to uncover the mysteries of the “dark” Universe. This ominous-sounding invisible part of the cosmos makes up more than 95% of the mass and energy in our Universe.
For centuries, astronomers have aimed to learn more about the luminous sources of the cosmos: planets, stars, galaxies, gas. But these objects make up only a small fraction of what the Universe contains.
95% of the Universe appears to be made up of unknown “dark” matter and energy. Scientists estimate that dark matter makes up 25% of the Universe and dark energy 70%. Dark matter and energy affect the motion and distribution of visible sources, but do not emit, absorb or reflect any light, and scientists do not know yet what these entities actually are. Understanding their nature is therefore one of the most compelling challenges of cosmology and fundamental physics today.
