NASA's SPHEREx & PUNCH Science Missions on SpaceX Falcon 9 at Vandenberg

NASA's SPHEREx & PUNCH Science Missions on SpaceX Falcon 9 at Vandenberg

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory and Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) satellites, is vertical at Space Launch Complex 4 East from Vandenberg in California. SpaceX is now targeting Tuesday, March 11, 2025, with liftoff targeted for 8:10 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)/11:10 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). SPHEREx will use its telescope to provide an all-sky spectral survey, creating a 3D map of the entire sky to help scientists investigate the origins of our universe. PUNCH will study origins of the Sun’s outflow of material, or the solar wind, capturing continuous 3D images of the Sun’s corona and the solar wind’s journey into the solar system.

Learn more about the SPHEREx Mission:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/

Learn more about the PUNCH Mission:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/punch/

Image Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)
Image Date: March 8, 2025

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