18 Feb 2025

 

The SPHEREx mission will improve our understanding of how the universe evolved and search for key ingredients for life in our galaxy, while PUNCH will observe the Sun’s corona as it transitions into solar wind.

 

NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), the agency’s newest space telescope. This will lift off with another NASA mission, Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, which will study the Sun’s solar wind.

The launch window opens at 10:09 p.m. EST (7:09 p.m. PST) Thursday, Feb. 27, for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will lift off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Watch coverage on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The SPHEREx mission will improve our understanding of how the universe evolved and search for key ingredients for life in our galaxy.

The four small spacecraft that comprise PUNCH will observe the Sun’s corona as it transitions into solar wind.

NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

 

Tuesday, Feb. 25

2 p.m. – SPHEREx and PUNCH Science Overview News Conference

• Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director, Astrophysics Division, NASA Headquarters
• Joe Westlake, director, Heliophysics Division, NASA Headquarters
• Nicholeen Viall, PUNCH Mission Scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
• Rachel Akeson, SPHEREx science data center lead, Caltech/IPAC
• Phil Korngut, SPHEREx instrument scientist, Caltech

The news conference will stream on NASA+.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 26

3:30 p.m. – SPHEREx and PUNCH Prelaunch News Conference

• Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
• David Cheney, PUNCH program executive, NASA Headquarters
• James Fanson, SPHEREx project manager, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Denton Gibson, launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program
• Julianna Scheiman, director, NASA Science Missions, SpaceX
• U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Ina Park, 30th Operations Support Squadron launch weather officer

Coverage of the prelaunch news conference will stream live on NASA+.

 

Thursday, Feb. 27

12 p.m. – SPHEREx and PUNCH Launch Preview will stream live on NASA+.

9:15 p.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+.

10:09 p.m. – Launch window opens.

 

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NASA’s SPHEREx is situated on a work stand ahead of prelaunch operations at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The SPHEREx space telescope will share its ride to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA’s PUNCH mission.