Space mission · NASA

Spitzer Space Telescope

ExplorationCompletedLaunched 2003-08-25

Mission overview

Spitzer was NASA's infrared Great Observatory, studying warm dust, exoplanets, and distant galaxies.

Mission data

Identity and engineering data from Wikidata (type-verified match · Q201953) · launch date 2003-08-25 confirmed

International designator

2003-038A

Wikidata · catalogued

Full field-level provenance

International designator: Wikidata (Wikimedia Foundation) — community-curated structured knowledge base · Wikidata · wdt · P247 · catalogued value · retrieved 2026-07-11

Sourced from Wikidata (community-maintained structured data, whose statements link to their own citations where provided); each value carries its Wikidata QID. A field with conflicting Wikidata values is omitted. Launch date is used only to cross-check the catalogue, never to override it. Fields Wikidata did not provide, or where conflicting values exist, are omitted, never invented.

Outcome & discoveries

Characterised exoplanet systems such as TRAPPIST-1 and observed the early universe in infrared.

Knowledge connections

Operated byNASA
StudiesThe Milky Way
Operated byCaltech/IPAC
ObservesInfrared
DiscoveredFU Tau b
DiscoveredHN Peg b
DiscoveredLP 791-18 d
DiscoveredWD 0806-661 b
Associated withPhase Curves

Mission	Type	Agency	Launch	Status
Freedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3)	Crewed suborbital	NASA	1961-05-05	Completed
Friendship 7 (Mercury-Atlas 6)	Crewed orbital	NASA	1962-02-20	Completed
Apollo 8The Moon	Crewed lunar orbit	NASA	1968-12-21	Completed
Apollo 11The Moon	Crewed lunar landing	NASA	1969-07-16	Completed
Apollo 13The Moon	Crewed lunar (aborted)	NASA	1970-04-11	Completed
Apollo 17The Moon	Crewed lunar landing	NASA	1972-12-07	Completed

Sources

The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.

NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.

Quick facts

Type: Space mission
Agency: NASA
Mission type: Space telescope
Destination: Earth-trailing solar orbit
Launch date: 2003-08-25
Status: Completed

Scientific citations

Real, source-backed references — primary papers first, then datasets and institutional sources. Formatted through the citation engine; nothing is fabricated.

Mission pageSpitzer Space Telescope

NASA

Cite (APA / BibTeX)

NASA (n.d.). Spitzer Space Telescope. NASA. https://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/

@misc{cite:obs-space_telescope-spitzer-space-telescope,
  title        = {Spitzer Space Telescope},
  organization = {NASA},
  year         = {n.d.},
  url          = {https://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/},
  note         = {Official page for Spitzer Space Telescope.}
}

Quality & authority

Substantial

Unreviewed

Description: Complete
Source coverage: Complete
Relationship coverage: Complete
Review coverage: None
Citation coverage: None
Image coverage: Complete

Curated from authoritative public sources. See source quality.