Space Infrared Telescope Facility - SIRTF

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The Space InfraRed Telescope Facility, SIRTF, is the last of NASA's Great Observatories. It will be a cryogenically cooled space observatory. The telescope will have a 0.85m mirror which will operate in the 3-180 micron region for spectroscopy and imaging. It will carry out a mix of surveys and focused general observer programs.

Mission Timeline

• 2001 - Launch
• 2.5 year lifetime

IRTF Mission Support

• Essential support for target selection
• Complementary near-ir measurements
• Temporal coverage of variable objects
• Accurate thermal information to be able to interpre data on protoplanetary disks
• For Brown dwarfs - need 1-5um spectra which SIRTF does not have