SpaceX Launches NASA's SPHEREx Space Telescope, PUNCH Solar Probes

SpaceX on March 12, launched NASA's SPHEREx space telescope and the PUNCH solar probes from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff occurred as planned at 0209 UTC, and NASA confirmed acquisition of signal shortly after SPHEREx separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage, indicating the spacecraft was power positive.

"Deployment of @NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory complete, beginning the telescope’s two-year mission to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and 100+ million stars in the Milky Way," SpaceX announced on X, moments after deployment.

Mission controllers also gained communications with the four spacecraft that make up the PUNCH mission shortly after launch.

As the agency's SPHEREx space telescope and PUNCH solar mission rode toward their orbital stations tonight, members of mission control appeared elated, onlookers who caught a peek at the liftoff cheered, and the scientists who built these missions exuded a blend of relief and excitement.

"I am so happy that we're finally in space!" said Farah Alibay, the lead flight system engineer on SPHEREx at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "It feels really great to have SPHEREx in space."

SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) is designed to survey the sky in near-infrared light, serving as a powerful tool for answering questions about the birth of the universe and the development of galaxies.

The spacecraft will also search for water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries and around stars where new planets could be forming. The mission is expected to gather data on more than 300 million galaxies and over 100 million stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

The space telescope that “will observe hundreds of millions of galaxies and other objects during its two-year mission, mapping the cosmos in wavelengths invisible to the human eye," according to the agency.

The PUNCH mission (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) consists of four suitcase-sized satellites that will focus on observing the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona) as it transitions into the solar wind.

PUNCH a “constellation of four small satellites in a polar (Sun-synchronous) low Earth orbit that will make global, 3D observations of the entire inner heliosphere to learn how the Sun's corona becomes the solar wind,” according to the agency.

Both PUNCH and SPHEREx need to settle into their respective orbits, one hidden from the sun and other basking in it, and after that scientists will still need to boot up the spacecraft's equipment to make sure there aren't any issues.

As of now, the PUNCH mission is scheduled to conduct science for at least two years, the mission team says, following a 90-day commissioning period that starts tonight. SPHEREx, on the other hand, is expected to collect data about over 450 million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way over a two-year planned mission.

About 8 minutes after liftoff early morning UTC, Wednesday, Falcon 9’s first stage (B1088) landed as planned, on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.