Euclid

Euclid is an ESA space telescope built to study dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe, mapping the three-dimensional distribution of up to two billion galaxies across more than a third of the sky. It operates from a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point, about 1.5 million km from Earth, where its sunshield keeps the telescope in permanent shade.

Originally manifested on a Soyuz ST-B from the Guiana Space Centre, Euclid was transferred to Falcon 9 after Russia suspended Soyuz operations at Kourou in February 2022 following European sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.