FIRSST is a far-infrared pointed space-borne observatory led at APL for the 2023 Astrophysics $1B Probe Class mission competition. FIRSST payload consists of a 1.8m telescope that is cryo-cooled to a temperature of 4.7K and two instruments that allow sensitive far-infrared spectroscopy between 35 to 600 microns with resolving powers up to a million. The PI-led science program of FIRSST aims to understand how galaxies grow in the universe, why super-Earths to mini-Neptunes are the most frequent planets, and what is the source of water in rocky planets. As required by NASA, 75% of the mission five-year lifetime is left open to be used by the astronomical community through a time allocation process, similar to the selection of science programs with Hubble and JWST. This talk will summarize the history of far-infrared astronomy, science objectives and requirements, and the technical details of FIRSST.
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