NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer, launched from Vandenberg to map the cosmic microwave background radiation left from the Big Bang; its FIRAS and DMR instrument results later earned principal investigators John Mather and George Smoot the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- Outcome
- Success
- Orbit
- LEO
- Low Earth orbit
- Payload to orbit
- 2.2 T
- Flight
- 1st
- Only Delta 5920-8 flight
- Date and time
- 18 November 1989, 14:34 UTC
- Rocket
- Delta 5920-8
- Builder
- McDonnell Douglas
- Launch site
- Space Launch Complex 2W, Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
- Payload
- Astrophysics
- International designator
- 1989-089
- Launches in 1989
- 90th of 102
See it in orbit
Space Atlas shows the satellites and rocket stages from this launch in 3D.
Object pages on Space Atlas: COBE
View satellites in Space Atlas