The satellite is contributing to boosting our understanding of the Universe

Jun 12, 2012 13:05 GMT  ·  By

I am very pleased to announce that the NASA Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has just turned 4 years old in Earth's orbit yesterday, June 11. The spacecraft took off on June 11, 2008, and has operated flawlessly ever since.

The satellite was carried into space aboard a Delta II delivery system, which took off from Space Launch Complex 17-B (SLC-17B), at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), in Florida.

Using its two instruments – the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) – the satellite has been keeping a close eye on the high-energy Universe ever since, studying black holes, neutron star collisions, supernovae, pulsars and other extreme phenomena.

The telescope was built by main contract General Dynamics, and is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA. International partners include Italy, Japan, Sweden, Germany and France.