LAUNCH OF ESA’S EUCLID COSMOLOGY MISSION, July 1, 2023, CCSFS, 11:12 am ET (ESA TV begins 10:30 am ET)

Update: The launch time has been refined by 1 minute. It is now 11:12 am ET.

Original Entry: The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Euclid cosmology mission that will search for clues about dark energy and dark matter — which together comprise 95% of the universe, but otherwise are unknown — will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL on July 1, 2023 at 11:11 am ET.  July 2 is a backup launch date if needed.

ESA will broadcast the launch live beginning at 10:30 am EDT on its website and YouTube.  The coverage schedule and links to the webcast are in the ESA press release.  Times are as follows in Central European Summer Time (subtract 6 for EDT):

16:30–18:10 Launch programme

Key milestones
On launch day the following key milestones will be included in the launch programme and covered by ESA social media channels.

17:11 Euclid launch on SpaceX Falcon 9
17:53 Separation of Euclid from Falcon 9
17:57 Earliest expected time to acquire Euclid’s signal

This is a rare instance of ESA launching on a U.S. rocket. Euclid was intended to launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket from ESA’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, but European-Russian space cooperation on launch vehicles (and in most other space activities) ended when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.  At the same time, ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket experienced delays and all the launches of Ariane 5 were already booked, so the decision was made to launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9.