>> NASA employees: Three, two, one, zero.
We have ignition. [rocket engine roars]
>> Rocket launches.
It's thrusting out flames
and you's watching and you have all those emotions
and the rocket goes along on this journey
and it deploys Spitzer.
>> The Spitzer Space Telescope is a member
of NASA's family of great observatories.
Spitzer is the infrared member of this family.
>> Spitzer has unveiled the infrared universe.
It has enabled humans to see what our eyes could not see.
>> Robert: We see a whole new side to the universe
that's hidden from us normally.
>> Farisa: You can peer inside of clouds of dust
to see the baby stars, called protostars, being born.
>> Yet, let us see into more distant galaxies
and see how the patterns of dust tell us
about the motions of gas and the dynamics of gravity
that operate in these objects.
All of a sudden, we could create these vast panoramas
at incredibly sharp resolutions
that we'd never been able to do before
and as a result, everything that was familiar in the sky,
every nebula, that we're used to seeing
in visible light images from the ground, things from Hubble,
they became completely different
when seen through the infrared eyes with Spitzer.
It was this combination of a scientific insight
that itself, was just stunningly beautiful
at the same time.
>> The biggest surprise,
in terms of what was revealed with Spitzer,
is its ability to characterize exoplanets,
the planets around other stars.
>> Most notably, we identified a system called TRAPPIST-1,
which has seven Earth-sized planets,
sort of snuggling up to what's a very cool star.
And of those planets, three of them at least,
are in the habitable zone.
>> When Spitzer launched,
exoplanet science was absolutely not part
of the science portfolio, we were offering for Spitzer
because it wasn't considered to be sensitive enough
to do that kind of observations.
But, while in flight, astronomers became clever
about how they could use it.
Engineers became very clever
about how we could repurpose Spitzer
and exoplanet science has actually become one
of the core science projects of Spitzer since then.
>> The Google Doodle that day, which was TRAPPIST-1,
is what kind of finished me off on a glorious day.
When your adult children point out that, you know,
"My mom works on that telescope."
You know, that's very rewarding.
[Farisa] Spitzer Space Telescope is a technological marvel.
>> I never had any conception
that we'd be going for 16 years.
>> The little machine that could
go beyond its primary design.
[Joseph] The longevity of the mission,
is a direct result of the engineers and scientists
and people that have supported the mission.
[Lisa] In a place that dares mighty things,
you can do it...together
and so, when you have that kind of union,
I think what happens is magic.
[Sean Carey] I'm hoping Spitzer will be remembered
as a really amazing scientific gift
and that it allowed us
to kind of transform our understanding
of some very important aspects of astronomy
and I think Spitzer's been integral to all that.
>> We have a huge archive that is waiting to be mined
and its revelations already have been tremendous
and revolutionary, that only time will tell,
what is Spitzer's greatest legacy.
[contemplative music]