The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope is scheduled for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 1, 2023. Its primary mission is to investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which together constitute about 95% of the universe's total mass-energy content but remain poorly understood.
France's Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) has played a significant role in the mission's development. The agency contributed to both of Euclid's core scientific instruments: the VISible instrument (VIS), a high-resolution optical imaging camera, and the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP). Additionally, the CEA was involved in developing the ground segment of the mission, which includes the data processing and analysis infrastructure essential for interpreting the vast datasets Euclid will generate.