NASA launch crew rings NYSE closing bell
April 25 (UPI) -- Members of SPHEREx, NASA's Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, recently visited the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell.
Several SPHEREx team members including flight system manager Michael Thelen rang the closing bell at the Wall Street exchange earlier in the week.
Members of London-based aerospace firm BAE Systems Inc. also participated in the closing bell ritual. The company provided the telescope and spacecraft bus for the mission.
The two-year SPHEREx mission aims to conduct an "all-sky spectral survey" using the near-infrared space observatory.
NASA built the explorer at its Joint Propulsion Laboratory at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SPHEREx successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in March, marking the first dual launch in the private company's history.
The observatory "will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way in order to explore the origins of the universe," according to NASA's mission page.
The $488 mission will produce a three-dimensional map, which will take up to two years. Scientists expect it will give them more information about how the universe expanded so rapidly.
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