NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer in standby mode
Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 11:31
in Astronomy & Space
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or Galex, was placed in standby mode Feb. 7, 2012 as engineers prepare to end mission operations, nearly nine years after the telescope's launch. The spacecraft is scheduled to be decommissioned -- taken out of service -- later this year. The mission extensively mapped large portions of the sky with sharp ultraviolet vision, cataloguing millions of galaxies spanning 10 billion years of cosmic time.