The European Space Agency's Euclid spacecraft is set to launch this Saturday 1 July from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA.
The spacecraft - which has been tasked with observing the Universe and uncovering the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, will launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Both ESA and SpaceX say they are targeting no earlier than 15:11 UTC / 16:11 BST / 17:11 CEST this Saturday 1 July, which is 11:11 local time.
The Euclid mission, it is hoped, will shed some light on the so-called 'dark Universe'.
All of the visible matter in the Universe - planets, stars, galaxies, everything we can see around us - accounts for just 5% of the total matter.
The other 95% is made up of two mysterious components:dark energy– the ‘force’ behind the acceleratingexpansion of the Universe– anddark matter.
Euclid is also helping track down rogue planets, wandering through space without a host star.
Launch day
On the day of Euclid's targeted launch, the launch programme will run between 14:30 - 16:10 UTC, and include the following key planned moments:
Times in UTC
- 15:11 Euclid launch on SpaceX Falcon 9
- 15:53 Separation of Euclid from Falcon 9
- 15:57Earliest expected time to acquire Euclid’s signal
A backup launch date of Sunday 2 July has been announced by ESA.
Watch the Euclid launch live
You can watch the launch of the Euclid mission live online courtesy of ESA or NASA.
