IDXChannel – SpaceX successfully launched its 28th rocket this year Thursday (9/12) local time, flying the X-ray observatory into space for NASA.
The Falcon 9 rocket launches from Pad 39A, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, carrying the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The mission marked the fifth flight for this particular booster.
“The lifting of Falcon 9 and IXPE, a new set of X-ray eyes to see the mysteries of our sky,” NASA TV launch commentator Derrol Nail said during a live webcast.
Satellite IXPE is a $214 million dollar mission that aims to investigate the physics behind some of the universe’s most dynamic objects: black hole and neutron stars.
Astronomers hope this refrigerator-sized satellite will be their new tool for investigating the mysteries of the universe.
Equipped with three identical telescopes, IXPE will study the polarization of light, meaning how light waves oscillate relative to the direction of the waves from some of the most dramatic cosmic sources in the universe.
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