Euclid arrives at launch site

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.