The Spitzer Space Telescope prior to launch |Organization||NASA
/ JPL / Caltech| |Major contractors||Lockheed Martin |Launch
date||2003-08-25, 05:35:00 UTC| |Launched from||Cape Canaveral,
Florida| |Launch vehicle||Delta II 7920H ELV| |Mission
length||2.5 to 5+ years (9 years, 9 months, and 25 days elapsed)
|Mass||950 kg (2,100 lb)| |Type of orbit||Heliocentric| |Orbit
period||1 year| |Location||Orbiting the Sun| |Wavelength||3 to
180 micrometers| |Diameter||0.85 m (2 ft 9 in)| |Focal
length||10.2 m| |MIPS||far infrared detector arrays| The Spitzer
Space Telescope (SST), formerly the Space Infrared Telescope
Facility (SIRTF), is an infrared space observatory launched in
2003. It is the fourth and final of the NASA Great Observatories
program. The planned mission period was to be 2.5 years with a
pre-launch expectation that the mission could extend to five or
slightly more years until the onboard liquid helium supply was
exhausted. This occurred on 15 May 2009. Without liquid helium
to cool the telescope to th