NASA Confirms UVEX Ultraviolet Space Telescope: Launch by January 2031 at $590 Million Lifecycle Cost
NASA announced on Oct. 27 that its UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer) space telescope mission has been confirmed by the agency after completing a technical and programmatic review known as Key Decision Point C, or KDP-C. With UVEX passing its KDP-C, NASA commits to a launch by January 2031 and a total lifecycle cost of $590 million.
Originally selected for development in 2024 as a Medium-Class Explorer mission, UVEX is designed to conduct a sensitive survey of ultraviolet light across the entire sky, providing new insights into how galaxies and stars evolve. Together with other missions conducting wide surveys, such as NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, UVEX will help create a modern map of the universe across different wavelengths of light.
The UVEX observatory will also be able to quickly point toward sources of ultraviolet light in the universe, capturing the explosions that follow bursts of gravitational waves caused by merging neutron stars.
The mission's principal investigator is Fiona Harrison at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Other participating institutions include the University of California, Berkeley, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, and Space Dynamics Laboratory.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：紫外波段下呈现蓝色恒星形成区的星系（资料图）。来源：UVEX 任务官网（California Institute of Technology／NASA UVEX 任务团队）。Image: A galaxy with blue star-forming regions seen in ultraviolet light (file image). Source: UVEX mission website (California Institute of Technology / NASA UVEX mission team).
