Wide Field Infrared Explorer

Wide Field Infrared Explorer ( WIRE), and Explorer 75, was a failed technical issues Space Infrared Telescope NASA.

WIRE had a cooled with solid hydrogen to below 14 Kelvin 30 - cm telescope. Scientific instrument was a camera for wavelengths of 12 and 25 microns. WIRE should discover among other things, tens of thousands of infrared galaxies at high redshift and thus contribute to the understanding of the evolution of galaxies.

The launch of the carrier aircraft L -1011 took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base. In the Point Arguello Western Air Drop zone over the Pacific, the Pegasus rocket was dropped, the WIRE successfully applied in low Earth orbit. Due to premature breaking off the instrument cover, the satellite fell temporarily out of control and consumed within a few days the coolant. WIRE it was unable to fulfill its original mission.

With the actually intended only for the tracking of the telescope star sensor yet results were obtained. The search for low brightness fluctuations in long observations of stars structural parameters were determined by the methods of asteroseismology of these stars. WIRE resigned on 10 May 2011, the Earth's atmosphere and burned up.