Editing Space Interferometry Mission (section)

===Planned launch===
[[Image:Atlas V 551 roars into blue sky.jpg|thumb|right|An [[Atlas V|Atlas V 551]], such as this one launching the [[New Horizons]] probe, was one of the possible launch vehicles for SIM.<ref name=astrorequest>{{Cite web |title=SIM Lite Astrometric Observatory Response to the Request for Information from Astro2010 |url=http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/SIM/Documents/SIMLiteRFI-Final-highres.pdf |access-date=30 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625070629/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/SIM/Documents/SIMLiteRFI-Final-highres.pdf |archive-date=25 June 2010 }}</ref>]]
The launch date for the SIM Lite mission was pushed back at least five times.<ref name=northrop/><ref name=contracts/><ref name=team/><ref name=budget1/> At the program's outset, in 1998, the launch was scheduled for 2005.<ref name=contracts/> By 2000, the launch date had been delayed until 2009, a date that held through 2003; though some project scientists cited 2008 in late 2000.<ref name=team/><ref name=milestone/><ref name=halverson>Halverson, Peter G., et al. "[http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/technical_papers/ProgressPicoMetroPaper.pdf Progress towards picometer accuracy laser metrology for the Space Interferometry Mission] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219192231/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/technical_papers/ProgressPicoMetroPaper.pdf |date=19 December 2008 }}", NASA, PlanetQuest, ''Jet Propulsion Laboratory''; paper originally released 17 October 2000 and presented at the International Conference of Space Optics, ICSO 2000, 5–7 December 2000, [[Toulouse]], France. Retrieved 25 April 2007.</ref> Between 2004 and 2006, contractor Northrop Grumman, the company designing and developing SIM, listed a launch date of 2011 on their website.<ref name=northrop/> With the release of the FY 2007 NASA budget, predictions changed again, this time to a date no earlier than 2015 or 2016.<ref name=budget1/> The delay of the launch date was primarily related to budget cuts made to the SIM Lite program.<ref name=budget1/><ref name=fringes/> The 2007 change represented a difference of about three years from the 2006 launch date, outlined in NASA's FY 2006 budget as being two years behind 2005 budget predictions.<ref name=budget1/><ref name=FY2006/>
Other groups predicted dates matching officially predicted launch dates; the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (formerly the Michelson Science Center) at the [[California Institute of Technology]] also set the date at 2015.<ref name=msc>"[http://msc.caltech.edu/missions/SIMPQ/ Space Interferometry Mission (SIM)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070617080548/http://msc.caltech.edu/missions/SIMPQ/ |date=17 June 2007 }}", Missions, Michelson Science Center, ''California Institute of Technology''. Retrieved 24 April 2007.</ref> As of June 2008, NASA has postponed the launch date "indefinitely".<ref name=status/>

A May 2005 NASA operating plan put the mission into a replanning phase through the spring of 2006. The launch was planned to be via an [[Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle]] (EELV), likely an [[Atlas V|Atlas V 521]] or equivalent.<ref name=astrorequest/>