The container with the Microwave Anisotropy Probe MAP satellite inside moves into the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2.

The container with the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) satellite inside moves into the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2. MAP will undergo testing in the SAEF-2 before its scheduled launch June 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a Delta II rocket into a lunar-assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth for a 27-month mission (3 months transit, 24 months observing). The MAP instrument consists of a set of passively cooled microwave radiometers with 1.4x 1.6-meter diameter primary reflectors to provide the desired angular resolution. MAP measures small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation to an accuracy of one millionth of a degree. These measurements should reveal the size, matter content, age, geometry and fate of the universe. They will also reveal the primordial structure that grew to form galaxies and will test ideas about the origins of these primordial structures. The MAP instrument will be continuously shaded from the Sun, Earth, and Moon by the spacecraft. It is a product of Goddard Space Flight Center in partnership with Princeton University