Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer - Project Milestones

Project Milestones

The WISE Mission is led by Dr. Edward L. Wright of the University of California, Los Angeles. The mission has a long history under Wright's efforts, and was first funded by NASA in 1999 as a candidate for a NASA Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) mission under the name Next Generation Sky Survey (NGSS). The history of the program from 1999 to date is briefly summarized as follows:

• January 1999 — NGSS is one of five missions selected for a Phase A study, with an expected selection in late 1999 of two of these five missions for construction and launch, one in 2003 and another in 2004. Mission cost is estimated at $139 million at this time.
• March 1999 — WIRE infrared telescope spacecraft fails within hours of reaching orbit.
• October 1999 — Winners of MIDEX study are awarded, and NGSS is not selected.
• October 2001 — NGSS proposal is re-submitted to NASA as a MIDEX mission.
• April 2002 — NGSS proposal is accepted by the NASA Explorer office to proceed as one of four MIDEX programs for a Pre-Phase A study.
• December 2002 — NGSS changes its name to Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).
• March 2003 — NASA releases a press release announcing WISE has been selected for an Extended Phase-A study, leading to a decision in 2004 on whether to proceed with the development of the mission.
• April 2003 — Ball Aerospace is selected as the spacecraft provider for the WISE mission.
• April 2004 — WISE is selected as NASA's next MIDEX mission. WISE's cost is estimated at $208 million at this time.
• November 2004 — NASA selects the Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University to build the telescope for WISE.
• October 2006 — WISE is confirmed for development by NASA and authorized to proceed with development. Mission cost at this time is estimated to be $300 million.
• December 14, 2009 — WISE successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
• December 29, 2009 — WISE successfully jettisoned instrument cover.
• January 6, 2010 — WISE first light image released.
• January 14, 2010 — WISE begins its regular four wavelength survey scheduled for nine months duration. It is expected to cover 99% of the sky with overlapping images in the first 6 months and continuing with a second pass until the hydrogen coolant is exhausted about three months later.
• January 25, 2010 — WISE detects a never-before-seen near earth asteroid, designated 2010 AB78.
• February 11, 2010 — WISE detects a previously unknown comet, designated P/2010 B2 (WISE).
• February 25, 2010 — WISE website reports it has surveyed over a quarter of the sky to a depth of 7 overlapping image frames.
• April 10, 2010 — WISE website reports it has surveyed over half of the sky to a depth of 7 overlapping image frames.
• May 26, 2010 — WISE website reports it has surveyed over three-quarters of the sky to a depth of 7 overlapping image frames.
• July 16, 2010 — Press release announces that total sky coverage will be completed on July 17, 2010. About half of the sky will be mapped again before the instrument's block of solid hydrogen coolant sublimes and is exhausted.
• October 2010 — WISE hydrogen coolant runs out. Start of NASA Planetary Division funded NEOWISE mission.
• January 2011 — Entire sky surveyed to an image density of at least 16+ frames (i.e. second scan of sky completed).
• February 17, 2011 — WISE Spacecraft transmitter turned off at 12:00 noon PST by Principal Investigator Ned Wright. The Spacecraft will remain in hibernation without ground contacts awaiting possible future use.
• April 14, 2011 — Preliminary release of data covering 57 percent of the sky as seen by WISE.
• July 27, 2011 — First Earth Trojan asteroid discovered from WISE data.
• August 23, 2011 — WISE confirms the existence of a new class of brown dwarf, the Y dwarf. Some of these stars appear to have temperatures less than 300 K, close to room temperature at about 25C. Y dwarfs show ammonia absorption, in addition to methane and water absorption bands displayed by T dwarfs.
• March 14, 2012 — Release of the WISE All-Sky data to the scientific community.
• August 29, 2012 — WISE reveals millions of black-holes.
• September 20, 2012 — WISE was successfully contacted to check its status.