NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced that NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility has been renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope. It was named in honor of the late Dr. Lyman Spitzer Jr., one of the 20th century's most distinguished scientists.

A new window to the universe has opened with today's release of the first dazzling images from NASA's newly named Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility.

NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility successfully launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. The space telescope will use infrared detectors to pierce the dusty darkness enshrouding many of the universe's most fascinating objects.

A NASA observatory will soon open a new window to the universe. By using infrared technology to study celestial objects that are either too cool, too dust-enshrouded or too far away to otherwise be seen, NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility will pierce the thick dust that permeates the universe.

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility arrived today at the Kennedy Space Center to begin final preparations for its launch next month aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. The observatory was shipped to Florida from the Lockheed Martin plant in Sunnyvale, Calif.