Skip to main content

How to watch the Euclid dark matter telescope launch this Saturday

The astronomy community is about to get a new instrument to probe the mysteries of dark matter, with the launch of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Euclid telescope this Saturday. Euclid is a highly sophisticated space-based telescope that will observe huge swaths of the sky to create a 3D model of the universe to help elucidate some of the biggest questions in cosmology.

Euclid | Journey to darkness

The launch of the telescope will be live-streamed, and we have the details on how to watch online below.

Recommended Videos

What to expect from the launch

Artist impression showing Euclid leaving Earth and on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.
This artist impression shows Euclid leaving Earth and on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. This equilibrium point of the Sun-Earth system is located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the opposite direction of the Sun. L2 revolves around the Sun along with Earth. During Euclid’s orbit at L2, Euclid’s sunshield always blocks the light from the Sun, Earth, and moon while pointing its telescope toward deep space, ensuring a high level of stability for its instruments. ESA. Acknowledgement: Work performed by ATG under contract for ESA., CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The launch will take place from Cape Canaveral in Florida and will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch is taking place from the U.S. rather than from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana due to an issue with the originally planned launch vehicle. The original intention had been to launch Euclid using a Russian Soyuz rocket. However, ESA suspended its cooperation with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, so it was not possible to use a Soyuz.

Instead, ESA made an agreement to launch Euclid using a SpaceX rocket. The mission also has ties with the U.S. as NASA is contributing hardware for one of the telescope’s instruments and will also be contributing to processing the data collected by the mission.

Once Euclid is in space it will begin its journey to the Lagrange point L2. It will take around four weeks to reach this orbit around the sun, at which point it will begin a several-month process of preparing its instruments before beginning science operations around three months after launch.

How to watch the launch

The launch of the Euclid spacecraft will be livestreamed by both ESA and NASA. You can watch the ESA stream using the video embedded at the top of this page or by heading to the ESA live stream YouTube page. Alternatively, you can also watch using the NASA app or by watching the NASA live channel online.

Coverage of the launch begins at 10:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. PT) on Saturday, July 1, and will run for several hours until just after midday ET (9 a.m. PT). If you’d prefer to tune into just the key moments, ESA has provided an expected schedule as follows:

11:11 a.m. ET: Euclid launch on SpaceX Falcon 9
11:53 a.m. ET: Separation of Euclid from Falcon 9
1:57 a.m. ET: Earliest expected time to acquire Euclid’s signal

The first signal from Euclid should be acquired around 2 p.m. ET, which will mark the successful launch of the mission and confirm that the spacecraft is on its way to L2 as planned.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
How to watch the Europa Clipper mission launch on Monday
This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter.

Update: NASA has confirmed launch is scheduled for no earlier than 12:06 p.m. ET on Monday.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission, set to visit the icy moon of Jupiter, was set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week but had its launch delayed because of Hurricane Milton. Now, NASA has announced that it is targeting no earlier than Monday, October 14, for the launch, and we've got the details on how you can watch the event live.
What to expect from the Europa Clipper launch
The mission intends to explore Europa, the moon of Jupiter that has a liquid water ocean beneath a thick, icy shell. Because of the presence of liquid water there, scientists want to learn whether the moon could be potentially habitable, as it is one of the most promising locations that life could survive outside of Earth. The mission will search for information about the ocean and the presence of the building blocks of life, called organic compounds, to see if the ingredients for life are present there.

Read more
How to watch SpaceX’s Crew-9 launch to the ISS on Saturday
Crew-7's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft on the launchpad.

[UPDATE: SpaceX has called off Thursday's launch attempt due to an approaching storm. It's now targeting 1:17 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 28.]

SpaceX and NASA are gearing up for the Crew-9 launch that will carry an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Read more
How to watch NASA’s oldest active astronaut launch to the ISS on Wednesday
NASA astronaut Don Pettit.

NASA Astronaut Don Pettit Soyuz MS-26 Launch

Don Pettit isn't your average senior citizen. Instead of enjoying life in the slow lane, he's getting ready for a rocket ride to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday.

Read more