Europe’s Euclid space telescope set for launch

A SpaceX rocket in Florida stood poised for launch on Saturday carrying an orbital telescope built to shed light on mysterious cosmic phenomena known as dark energy and dark matter, unseen forces scientists say account for 95% of the known universe.
The telescope dubbed Euclid, a European Space Agency (ESA) instrument named for the ancient Greek mathematician called the “father of geometry,” was bundled inside the cargo bay of a Falcon 9 rocket set for blast-off around 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
New insights from the $1.4 billion mission, designed to last at least six years, are expected to transform astrophysics and perhaps understanding of the very nature of gravity itself.
If all goes as planned, Euclid will be released after a short ride to space for a month-long voyage to its destination in solar orbit nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth – a position of gravitational stability between the Earth and sun called the Lagrange Point Two, or L2.