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	Pegasus Lofts NASA's GALEX Telescope into Earth Orbit By Kelly Young FLORIDA TODAY posted: 11:30 am ET 28 April 2003

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A small NASA space telescope is on its way to learning more about the evolution of galaxies.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or GALEX, rode a Pegasus XL rocket to space at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) today.

The launch went off on time with no major problems. Some rain clouds appeared to be forming over the ocean early in the morning, but they dissipated by launch time.

"It was a fitting end to an air show weekend," NASA launch manager Chuck Dovale said.

The U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base on Sunday hosted an air show in which more than 100,000 people attended to see the Air Force Thunderbirds, Navy Blue Angels and Army Golden Knights perform.

The 55-foot long Pegasus XL rocket rode underneath Orbital Sciences Corporation's L-1011 jetliner as it took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's skid strip and flew 100 miles out over the Atlantic Ocean.

At 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), the pilot was given the command to drop the rocket. The Pegasus fell for five seconds and then fired its first-stage engine. It only took 10 minutes for the 609-pound satellite to get to orbit.

From its perch 429 miles above Earth, the $71.6 million probe will try to make large maps of the sky in ultraviolet light. This will be the first time a sky map has been done in ultraviolet.

Other telescopes, like the Hubble Space Telescope, can do measurements in ultraviolet, but Hubble's lens is very focused on specific objects. It can't zoom out and get a big picture like GALEX can.

With ultraviolet, scientists will be able to see stars as they are forming.

"UV is important for this mission because it sees the hottest stars and the youngest stars," said GALEX mission scientist Susan Neff.

The spacecraft will undergo a 30-day checkout period. The first two weeks will be devoted to cleaning the spacecraft of contaminants like water vapor that hitched a ride to space with the satellite.

Its mission is designed to last at least a year and could extend to two years and four months.

Throughout the course of its lifetime, GALEX will observe more than a million galaxies over 10 billion years of the universe's history.

After 20 months of conducting eight studies of the sky, other scientists will have the opportunity to use the telescope for different observations.

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