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On 18 December, the Ariane 5GS made its final flight, delivering the Helios-IIB satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The last orbital launch of the year was conducted eleven days later, on 29 December, when a Proton-M with a Briz-M upper stage launched the DirecTV-12 satellite.
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009. [2] [3] [4] WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and numerous star clusters.
On December 18, 2009, the SOFIA aircraft performed the first test flight in which the telescope door was fully opened. This phase lasted for two minutes of the 79-minute flight. SOFIA's telescope saw first light on May 26, 2010, returning images showing M82 's core and heat from Jupiter 's formation escaping through its cloud cover. [37]
Launched on June 18, 2009, in conjunction with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), as the vanguard of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, LRO was the first United States mission to the Moon in over ten years.
Two Naval Ocean Surveillance System satellites; also known as Intruder 7A and 7B. Final Atlas III launch, final launch of a direct evolution of the Atlas missile, and final launch from LC-36 before Blue Origin leasing the pad. Commercial mobile communications satellite. NASA Mars imaging probe.
The Explorers program [1] is a NASA exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, geophysics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United States to achieve orbit. Over 90 space missions have been launched since.
The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki.
It became the first NASA spacecraft named after a living (at the time) person, honoring physicist Eugene Newman Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. A memory card containing the names of over 1.1 million people was mounted on a plaque and installed below the spacecraft's high-gain antenna on 18 May 2018.
June 18 – NASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998. June 22 – A DC Metro Train collision claims the lives of nine people including the operator in the lead car of the moving train, and injures approximately 80.
ISS expeditions. ← Expedition 21. Expedition 23 →. Expedition 22 was the twenty-second long duration crew flight to the International Space Station (ISS). This expedition began on 1 December 2009 when the Expedition 21 crew departed.