Satellite

The Euclid spacecraft will have a launch mass of around 2,100 kg. It will be about 4.5 metres tall and span 3.1 metres  with its appendages stowed. The nominal mission lifetime is 6 years.

© Thales

The Euclid spacecraft is made up of two major assemblies:

• the EUCLID payload module consists of a telescope assembly feeding two scientific instruments, the VIS imager and the NISP spectrometer. By definition, the telescope assembly is made up of the optics (mirrors), mechanical structures and mechanisms (cover) shared by all the instruments (before beam splitting). The payload module interfaces with the service module.

Optical diagram of the telescope.	We can see the 1.20-m-diameter primary mirror (in blue), the secondary mirror at the top of the structure, and the two VIS and NISP instruments under the primary mirror, respectively on the left and on the right of the image.

• the service module carries various equipment for the following functional chains: mechanical and thermal, power, command and control, data handling and AOCS. The service module provides the communication links with the ground segment. The Fine Guidance Sensor, whose focal plane is near the VIS focal plane, is functionally attached to the SVM (AOCS).