How will IXO be launched?
IXO will be directly inserted into an 800,000 km semi-major axis halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 libration point. The main advantages of this orbit include its very stable thermal environment and the minimal shadowing from the Earth and/or Moon. In its launch configuration IXO will have a mass about 6600 kg and will be approximately 10 meters long and 4 meters in diameter, so it can fit right into Atlas V or an Ariane V rocket. When deployed during the voyage to the L2 orbit, the observatory will be ~ 20 meters tall, which requires the use a deployable metering structure between the spacecraft bus and the instrument module, since no rocket fairing is large enough to fit such a long observatory.
