Euclid in the thermal tent

ESA’s Euclid mission to aims to investigate dark matter, dark energy and the expanding Universe.

Here the payload module (containing the telescope and instruments) is packed into a thermal tent at Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) in Belgium, after which it was loaded in a large vacuum tank for 60 days where it underwent intensive testing.

It experienced simulated space conditions in vacuum with the structure cooled to -150oC, the same temperature it will operate in once in space.