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A 6-year mission to shed light on the 'dark universe' dominated by dark matter and dark energy started with the liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Euclid Space Telescope for the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 1st at 11:12 a.m. EDT (1512 UTC) from Florida's Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). The telescope will take roughly four weeks 
Europe's on a mission to explore the dark universe with the launch of the Euclid Telescope
by Jennifer Briggs
Space Coast FL (SPX) Jul 01, 2023
A 6-year mission to shed light on the 'dark universe' dominated by dark matter and dark energy started with the liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Euclid Space Telescope for the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 1st at 11:12 a.m. EDT (1512 UTC) from Florida's Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). The telescope will take roughly four weeks to reach the Earth-Sun Lagrange point 2, on the opposite side of the sun to us and about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
"Euclid will observe the past 10 billion years, from when most of the stars and galaxies had formed and when dark energy started to be dominant," said the mission's Project Manager, ESA's Giuseppe Racca.
An estimated 85% of the universe's substance is assumed to be made up of dark matter, which also makes up around a quarter of its total energy density. The type of energy known as dark energy is supposed to permeate all of space and accelerate the universe's expansion.
The visible-to-near-infrared space telescope known as Euclid was developed by ESA and the Euclid Consortium. It is a Korsch-type telescope equipped with a mirror 1.2 meters in diameter that will measure the forms of galaxies at various distances from Earth and look into the relationship between distance and redshift. Euclid aims to precisely measure the universe's acceleration in order to comprehend dark energy and dark matter better.
With the help of its Visual Imager (VIS) and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), Euclid will conduct its observations. Built by Thales Alenia and Airbus Defence and Space, Euclid is 4.5 meters tall and 3.1 meters in diameter and has a launch mass of about 2,100 kg.
About eight-and-a-half minutes into the mission, the booster, designated (number), landed on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" (ASOG) station in the Atlantic Ocean on its second trip to space. The reusable first-stage booster supporting this mission previously launched the second all-private crew for Axiom
Related Links
Euclid at ESA
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It