20 Nov 2009 - WISE is on the rocket. The transport went very smoothly.
16 Nov 2009 - Due to the delay on the East Coast of the Delta IV carrying WGS-3, WISE is slipped to Dec 9.
12 Nov 2009 - WISE is full of supercooled solid hydrogen. Liquid helium will be circulated through cooling coils from now until shortly before launch to keep the hydrogen frozen solid.
29 Oct 2009 - WISE started filling the hydrogen tanks in the cryostat
today. WISE also passed its Flight Readiness Review today.
The launch vehicle for WISE is being stacked at VAFB.
21 Oct 2009 - Helium started flowing for the final cooldown of WISE.
08 Oct 2009 - Worldview 2 launched today, so the pad is clear for WISE to launch in 60 days.
19 Aug 2009 - WISE is now on the launch manifest for 7 Dec 2009.
14 Aug 2009 - WISE has arrived at VAFB.
5 Aug 2009 - NASA HQ had directed WISE to plan for a launch no earlier than (NET) 1 Dec 2009. This delay is due to launch vehicle availability. Shipping to VAFB will still occur in August.
4 Aug 2009 - the WISE pre-ship review occured on Tuesday 4 August. Shipping to VAFB was approved.
3 Jul 2009 - the WISE spacecraft and cryostat/telescope/imager passed electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility testing.
1 Jun 2009 - the WISE spacecraft and cryostat/telescope/imager passed acoustic testing.
WISE will
Simulated WISE images.
This figure shows the 5 sigma point source sensitivities of WISE and previous or planned all-sky surveys. The planned wavelength range for the JWST is indicated. The dot size shows the planned sky coverage. GALEX is a small Explorer (SMEX) which was launched by NASA in 2003, SDSS is the groundbased Sloan Digital Sky Survey, DPOSS is the groundbased Digital Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, ASTRO-F is the Japanese satellite, renamed Akari after launch on 22 Feb 2006, and Planck is the European CMB mission to be launched in 2009 which also includes a good sub-mm survey capability.
When will WISE observe a given source?
WISE will make a preliminary release of data taken during the first half of the survey six months after the end of on-orbit data acqusition. For the current lifetime estimate of 10 months, and launch date of Dec 7, the first data release would be in April 2011. The final data release will be 11 months later in March 2012 according to current estimates.
The data products will include:| Mass: | 661 kg |
| Basic Design: | Three-axis stabilized. Body-fixed solar arrays. Fixed high gain antenna. |
| Power: | 301 W orbit average required, supplied by 2.4 m2 GaInP2/GaAs/Ge solar cells: 382 W EOL orbit average. |
| Telemetry: | Ku-band to TDRSS during polar passages. |
| Data Rate: | 23 GB per day (compressed) |
| Data Storage: | 96 GB |
| Propulsion: | None |
| PI: | Edward L. (Ned) Wright, UCLA Physics & Astronomy |
| Co-I's: | Science team |
| Project management: | JPL |
| Spacecraft: | Ball Aerospace |
| Instrument: | SDL |
| Detectors: | DRS and Teledyne (formerly RSC) |
| Cryostat: | Lockheed-Martin |
| Data analysis: | IPAC |
| EPO: | UC Berkeley Space Science Laboratory |