SISTINE (also known as SISTINE Mission and SISTINE Program) (acronym for "Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars") is a NASA mission designed to study distant stars as a way of finding lifeonexoplanets.[1][2]
The technology to be employed is up to 100 times the UV spectroscopic ability of the Hubble Space Telescope.[3] The first test of the mission was launched on a Black Brant 9 rocket, a two-stage sounding rocket, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on 11 August 2019.[4] This suborbital rocket can carry a payload of up to 1200 pounds, which, in the case of SISTINE, includes spectrographic equipment capable of covering the far ultra-violet spectral range of 100 to 160 nm, well suited to study strong atomic emission lines associated with the formation temperatures in the atmospheres of low-mass stars, and their effects on the potential atmospheres of exoplanets.[4]
The second launch of SISTINE occurred on 8 November 2021. This launch focused on observing the spectra of Procyon A.[5]
A third launch occurred on 6 July 2022 at 13:47 UTC from the Arnhem Space CentreinNhulunbuy, Australia, reaching an apogee of 243 km (151 mi). This launch focused on the spectra of Alpha Centauri A and B in the Alpha Centauri system which contains three stars and Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to the Earth.[6]
The principal investigator of the mission is astronomer Kevin France, Assistant Professor at the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of ColoradoinBoulder, Colorado.[1][7][8]