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The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting ultraviolet space telescope launched on April 28, 2003, and operated until early 2012. ==History== An airlaunched Pegasus rocket placed the craft into a nearly circular orbit at an altitude of and an inclination to the Earth's equator of 29 degrees. The first observation was dedicated to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia and images the sky in the constellation Hercules, taken on May 21, 2003. This region was selected because it had been directly overhead the shuttle at the time of its last contact with the NASA Mission Control Center. After its primary mission of 29 months, observation operations were extended to almost 9 years with NASA placing it into standby mode on 7 Feb 2012.〔(GALEX ends )〕 NASA cut off financial support for operations of GALEX in early February 2011 as it was ranked lower than other projects which were seeking a limited supply of funding. The mission's life-cycle cost to NASA was $150.6 million. The California Institute of Technology negotiated to transfer control of GALEX and its associated ground control equipment to the California Institute of Technology in keeping with the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act. Under this Act, excess research equipment owned by the US government can be transferred to educational institutions and non-profit organizations. In May 2012, GALEX operations were transferred to Caltech.〔(Marcus Woo - NASA lends ultraviolet space telescope to Caltech (May 17, 2012) - Phys.org )〕 A fund-raising effort called GALEX CAUSE is being run to try and complete its All-Sky UV Survey.〔(GALEX - CAUSE )〕 Its unique ultraviolet observations shed new light on special studies of galaxies, black-holes, supernova, stars, and beyond.〔 On June 28, 2013 NASA decommissioned GALEX. It is expected that the spacecraft will remain in orbit for at least 65 years before it will re-enter the atmosphere.〔(NASA Decommissions Its Galaxy Hunter Spacecraft )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「GALEX」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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