NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer Spacecraft Is Successfully Launched

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - APRIL 28: An Orbital Sciences' L-1011 aircraft takes flight April 28, 2003 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Attached underneath the aircraft is the Pegasus XL rocket with its payload, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), to be released and rocket into space. The GALEX will carry into space an orbiting telescope that will observe a million galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history to help astronomers determine when the stars and elements we see today were created. The spacecraft will sweep the skies for 28 months using state-of-the-art ultraviolet detectors to single out galaxies dominated by young, hot, short-lived stars that give off a great deal of energy at that wavelength. These galaxies are actively creating stars, and therefore provide a window into the history and causes of star formation in galaxies. (Photo by NASA.Getty Images)