{"id":9898,"date":"2025-03-11T01:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T17:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-spacex-launch-spherex-and-punch-missions-following-spacecraft-driven-scrub\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T01:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T17:36:20","slug":"nasa-spacex-launch-spherex-and-punch-missions-following-spacecraft-driven-scrub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-spacex-launch-spherex-and-punch-missions-following-spacecraft-driven-scrub\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA, SpaceX launch SPHEREx and PUNCH missions following spacecraft-driven scrub"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_68980\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68980\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68980\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250311_SPHEREx_PUNCH_launch.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250311_SPHEREx_PUNCH_launch.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250311_SPHEREx_PUNCH_launch-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250311_SPHEREx_PUNCH_launch-678x452.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250311_SPHEREx_PUNCH_launch-768x512.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base to begin NASA\u2019s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions on March 11, 2025. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><strong>Update March 12, 1:52 a.m. ET: NASA confirms acquisition of signal.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>NASA launched its first ride share flight in support of the Science Mission Directorate with two missions flying on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night. It came following a last-minute issue that NASA described as \u201ca SPHEREx ground data-flow issue,\u201d which caused the mission to scrub on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Onboard the Falcon 9 rocket were the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory and four spacecraft that make up the Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened Tuesday, March 11, at 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT, 0310 UTC). NASA confirmed acquisition of signal shortly after SPHEREx separated from the Falcon 9 and was reportedly power positive.<\/p>\n<p>Mission controllers were also able to gain communications with the four spacecraft that make up the PUNCH mission as well.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b88ru3jQy-4?si=9Vhi1UAYQ2xtr-z-\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A joint NASA-SpaceX launch readiness review was held on Friday and the mission was then scheduled for Saturday, but then NASA announced that it was standing down from launching that day to \u201callow teams to continue rocket checkouts ahead of liftoff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Previous payloads from SMD purchased dedicated flights on rockets through NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program (LSP), which is managed by the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During a prelaunch news conference, Mark Clampin, the acting deputy associate administrator for SMD described the upcoming launch as being \u201ca real change in how we do business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe call this a ride share and it\u2019s a new strategy that SMD is working, where we can maximize the efficiency of launches by flying two payloads at once, so we maximize our science return,\u201d Clampin said. \u201cThe other thing I think is really important to understand is not only are we launching two missions at once, but these missions cover the full breadth of the science that NASA does every day. So, we\u2019re really excited by this launch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Julianna Scheiman, the director of NASA Science Missions for SpaceX, noted that while this is the first SMD rideshare mission of the year, it won\u2019t be the last. The agency\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) and Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) missions will launch on a rideshare mission later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Scheiman didn\u2019t state which mission would carry IMAP and TRACERS, but a Dec. 20, 2024 press release from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) said that NASA and SpaceX were targeting \u201cas soon as September 2025\u201d to launch IMAP. A separate blog post from NASA dated the same day said IMAP would fly alongside the agency\u2019s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric\u2019s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On \u2013 Lagrange 1 mission.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68943\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68943\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68943\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250116-SPHEREx-processing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250116-SPHEREx-processing.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250116-SPHEREx-processing-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250116-SPHEREx-processing-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250116-SPHEREx-processing-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68943\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), a space telescope, is situated on a work stand ahead of prelaunch operations at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. Image: BAE Systems\/Benjamin Fry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big rideshare year for Falcon and for NASA Science. Very exciting!\u201d Scheiman said. \u201cI personally came to SpaceX because I wanted to help lower the cost of access to space, which in turn helps us enable more scientific exploration. So, I\u2019m really proud that we can be doing that together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting Saturday\u2019s launch of SPHEREx and PUNCH, tail number B1088, flew for a third time. It previously flew NROL-126 for the National Reconnaissance Office and the Transporter-12 ridershare mission, which carried 131 payloads as part of SpaceX\u2019s smallsat rideshare program.<\/p>\n<p>A little less than eight minutes after liftoff, B1088 touched down back at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg. It marked the 24th recovery at LZ-4 and the 416th successful booster landing for SpaceX to date.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68944\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68944\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68944\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_patch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"876\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_patch.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_patch-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_patch-678x678.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_patch-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_patch-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s design for the SPHEREx and PUNCH mission launch. Graphic: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Overcoming obstacles<\/h4>\n<p>The path to launch has not been a straightforward one for this mission. During his opening remarks on Friday, Denton Gibson, the launch director for LSP, thanked his colleagues across NASA, SpaceX, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Space Force before noting that they had \u201crun into a lot of challenges along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of those challenges have caused us some launch delays, but this team has pulled together and worked diligently to get us over that and yesterday (Thursday), we mated the spacecraft to the launch vehicle,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n<p>Scheiman said that there were a \u201cseries of integration issues,\u201d one of which involved an environmental control systems within the payload fairings called an \u201cimpedance mismatch assembly. She described it as lowering \u201cthe environments the spacecraft experiences on ascent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat system has a series of inserts, 120 inserts, that during integration, we realized had become ovalized. And so, we needed to pause first, understand the issue, make sure that we had a safe path to fly,\u201d Scheiman said. \u201cAnd once we were able to do that and install updated fasteners, we then proceeded through that operation to continue that installation.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68945\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68945\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68945\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250227-SPHEREx-PUNCH-encapsulation-small.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250227-SPHEREx-PUNCH-encapsulation-small.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250227-SPHEREx-PUNCH-encapsulation-small-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250227-SPHEREx-PUNCH-encapsulation-small-678x452.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250227-SPHEREx-PUNCH-encapsulation-small-768x512.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68945\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Technicians and engineers encapsulate NASA\u2019s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observatory and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) satellites within a protective payload fairing inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Image: BAE Systems\/Benjamin Fry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She said while that was a large portion of the delay, that wasn\u2019t the full picture. She said there was also an issue with the pressure within the payload fairings\u2019 pneumatic separation system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time we perform an encapsulation operation, after that we make sure that the pressure in the fairing pneumatic system is sufficient to eventually be able to separate that fairing in flight,\u201d Scheiman said. \u201cAnd when we performed that check, this time around, after the initial encapsulation, we discovered that there was a leak in the fairing pneumatic separation system. So we needed to de-encapsulate, repair the leak and re-encapsulate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scheiman said on top of those, there was also a weather delay during the period of time when they were trying to transport the encapsulated payload from the payload processing facility at Astrotech to SLC-4E.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to do that in high winds or bad weather and that\u2019s what we saw the first day we were trying to do that transport,\u201dSheiman said. \u201cAnd we were also working as on a non-interference basis for this launch with the high-priority range operation that was occurring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so we did, one of those days, need to stand down to support the higher priority range operation that was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68946\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68946\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68946\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250305_punch_news_punch-transported-to-launch-pad-small.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250305_punch_news_punch-transported-to-launch-pad-small.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250305_punch_news_punch-transported-to-launch-pad-small-300x182.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250305_punch_news_punch-transported-to-launch-pad-small-678x411.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250305_punch_news_punch-transported-to-launch-pad-small-768x466.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Falcon 9 fairing containing the PUNCH spacecraft captured from the Surf Beach station west of VSFB by a passenger on the morning Amtrak train on March 4, 2025. Image: Southwest Research Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While Scheiman didn\u2019t explicitly state what that higher priority operation was, it likely was the return from orbit of the uncrewed X-37B Orbital Transfer Vehicle, which landed back at Vandenberg on Friday morning at 2:22 a.m. EST (0722 UTC). It touched down after operating in a highly-elliptical orbit for 434 days.<\/p>\n<p>Separately from everything happening in California, SpaceX was also reviewing data from a failed booster recovery following the launch of the Starlink 12-20 mission on Sunday, March 2. A fuel leak during ascent resulted in a fire breaking out in the engine section about 48 seconds after touchdown on the droneship, \u2018Just Read the Instructions,\u2019 causing the destruction of the booster.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the Falcon 9 rocket until March 4 as a result of the mishap. Even though NASA missions aren\u2019t governed by the FAA, Scheiman said they still wanted to review the data and responses from that issue \u201cto make sure that there\u2019s no concern or risk to ascent, especially for these important science missions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gibson said NASA did its own evaluation as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs part of NASA Launch Services Program, one of our major roles is that we have a mission assurance role. So a lot of these evaluations, we do independent of SpaceX to give it a fresh set of eyes, a different set of eyes, to ensure that we are not incurring any risk to our mission,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so, we\u2019ve gone through that process and we\u2019ve gotten comfortable, which is why we are able to complete, successfully complete our launch readiness review earlier today.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68941\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68941\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68941\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_sunrise_rocket_angle_small.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_sunrise_rocket_angle_small.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_sunrise_rocket_angle_small-300x138.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_sunrise_rocket_angle_small-678x313.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_sunrise_rocket_angle_small-768x354.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68941\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions for NASA. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Observing the Sun and sky<\/h4>\n<p>The two NASA missions onboard the Falcon 9 rocket seek to further human understanding of both the origins of the universe and of solar winds.<\/p>\n<p>SPHEREx is an infrared telescope that will map the full night sky four times over the course of its planned two-year mission. Each pass will feature 102 color bands and help identify targets for other observatories, like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.<\/p>\n<p>The observatory cost $488 million is managed by JPL with its principal investigator based at Caltech, which also developed SPHEREx in partnership with JPL. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace (acquired by BAE Systems) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) acts as both an instrument and science partner for the mission.<\/p>\n<p>SPHEREx aims to separate from the Falcon 9 rocket about 42 minutes after liftoff and presents teams on the ground three opportunities to establish signal with the observatory.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68947\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68947\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68947\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_rendering_small.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_rendering_small.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_rendering_small-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_rendering_small-678x381.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_rendering_small-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s SPHEREx mission will operate in low Earth orbit, detecting hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies and creating the first all-sky spectroscopic survey in the near-infrared. This artist\u2019s concept shows the spacecraft and its distinctive conical photon shields, which protect SPHEREx\u2019s telescope from infrared light and heat from the Sun and Earth. Graphic: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe first opportunity will be over Antartica. We could acquire the signal between one and three minutes after spacecraft separation,\u201d said James Fanson, the SPHEREx project manager at JPL. \u201cThe second opportunity is 47 minutes after separation over the island of Svalbard in the Arctic. This is also our first opportunity to send a command to the spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe third opportunity to acquire signal is over Fairbanks, Alaska, at approximately 63 minutes after separation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Four days after launch, teams will open the lens cap on the telescope and then continue with outgassing of moisture and other contaminants over the following two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the ejectable aperture cover, SPHEREx doesn\u2019t feature any other moving parts or propulsion systems. Its all-aluminum telescope has a 20 cm (7.9 in) diameter and 11\u00b0x3.5\u00b0 field of view<\/p>\n<p>The process of calibrating the instruments, doing practice surveys and just letting the imaging sensors get cold enough will go on for roughly 37 days following launch.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68948\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68948\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68948\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_processing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_processing.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_processing-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_processing-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_processing-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68948\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), a space telescope, is situated on a work stand ahead of prelaunch operations at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. Image: BAE Systems\/Benjamin Fry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fanson said the observatory will operate in a dawn\/dusk Sun-synchronous polar orbit, allowing the spacecraft to remain in sunlight. That ensures that it stays at a consistent temperature throughout its two-year mission.<\/p>\n<p>He said the goal of this mission is to create a map in three dimensions of more than 400 million galaxies \u201cacross cosmic time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to better understand what happened in the moments right after the Big Bang at the origin of the universe, when the universe is believed to have experienced a sudden, dramatic, rapid expansion called \u2018cosmic inflation,\u201d Fanson said.<\/p>\n<p>Fanson said SPHEREx can also help answer the question of how much water is in the universe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSPHEREx will probe interstellar clouds of ices, four ices made of water and other molecules,\u201d he said. \u201cThis mission will provide a rich archive of data that will enable many scientific studies by the astronomy community for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68949\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68949\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68949\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_mapping_small.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_mapping_small.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_mapping_small-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_mapping_small-678x381.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250308_SPHEREx_mapping_small-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s SPHEREx observatory will map the entire sky to help scientists answer big-picture questions about the origins of our universe, galaxies, and key ingredients for life in our galaxy, such as water. Operating from low Earth orbit, the telescope will sweep across the sky, taking about 600 exposures each day. Using a technique called spectroscopy, the observatory will image every section of the sky 102 times, each time using a different color filter that blocks all wavelengths except one. By combining those images, the mission will produce a map containing information about the composition of and distance to millions of stars and other objects in our galaxy and hundreds of millions of galaxies beyond. (See an animation of this process, depicted in a still artist\u2019s concept above, at spherex.caltech.edu\/video\/all-sky-survey.) Graphic: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In addition to SPHEREx, four other spacecraft representing the PUNCH mission will be deployed from the Falcon 9 in pairs at roughly 52 and 53 minutes post-liftoff. It\u2019s part of NASA\u2019s Small Explorers (SMEX) program and cost $150 million, according to Clampin.<\/p>\n<p>One of the four is a narrow field imager (NFI) coronagraph and the other three are wild field imager (WFI) heliospheric imagers. They will operate for two years following a 90-day commissioning period.<\/p>\n<p>The NFI spacecraft acts as a coronagraph and has an area that blocks out the Sun to measure the corona. The three WFI spacecraft then measure the solar wind around the corona.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can then stitch those together and then we connect them with those images, that basically become one instrument,\u201d said David Cheney, the PUNCH program executive. \u201cWe can then understand the three dimensional aspect of the solar wind and how it progresses as it moves towards the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said having that understanding can help forecasters better predict space weather and its potential impact on not only space assets, like astronauts and satellites, but also the terrestrial power grid.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lv4ac8pBT4c?si=YLYDWADxYcZWU6SO\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base to begin NASA\u2019s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions on March 11, 2025. Image: SpaceX Update March 12, 1:52 a.m. ET: NASA confirms acquisition of signal. NASA launched its first ride share flight in support of the Science Mission Directorate with two missions flying on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[796,479,190,924,1174,316,899],"class_list":["post-9898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-b1088","tag-falcon-9","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-lsp","tag-punch","tag-spacex","tag-spherex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}