Spitzer Space Telescope Mission: mission and targets

Project start

August 25, 2003

Declared end

January 30, 2020

The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.

None of the targets this mission declares is in Galaxy’s catalogue.

A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.

The Spitzer Space Telescope, the last of NASA's Great Observatories to launch, was a space-based infrared observatory. Launched as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) in August 2003, it was renamed in December of the same year to honor Lyman S. Spitzer, Jr., one of the earliest proponents of space-based telescopes. Spitzer operated with cryogenically-cooled instruments until the last of its helium boiled away in May 2009, at which point the project was reconfigured and renamed the Spitzer Warm Mission. Operations continued until 30 January 2020.

Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026.

Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:nasa:pds:context:investigation:mission.spitzer

NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/

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