How did we get here?", "How did the Milky Way and other galaxies form?", and "How do life-bearing planets form?" The Far-Infrared Great Observatory will unveil the hidden side of galaxy and black hole evolution, trace the trail of water from molecular clouds to proto-planetary disks, revolutionize our understanding of planetary system formation, and complete the census of the outer reaches of the Solar System. By delivering three orders of magnitude gain in sensitivity over previous far-infrared missions, high angular resolution to overcome spatial confusion in deep surveys, and new spectroscopic capabilities to detect water in planet forming disks and the key tracers of rapidly evolving galaxies and growing black holes in the early Universe, the Far-Infrared Great Observatory will tell manifold cosmic stories from First Light to Life itself.
 

The Origins deployment sequence. The architecture for the FIR Mission is notional as of now, but it will likely have a cold backplane and Origins-like instrumentation suite, pending the outcome of Probe selections and mission design trades.