Insider Brief
- NASA successfully launched SPHEREx aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, beginning two separate missions to study the universe and observe solar weather, with liftoff occurring at Vandenberg Space Force Base on March 11.
- SPHEREx, a two-year mission managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will map the sky in 3D every six months, measuring distances of 450 million galaxies and searching for frozen water and carbon dioxide in the Milky Way to advance understanding of cosmic inflation and the origins of life.
- The PUNCH mission, consisting of four satellites that will study how the Sun’s corona transforms into solar wind, helping researchers understand the Sun’s impact on space weather and its potential dangers to spacecraft and astronauts.
NASA’s latest space observatory, SPHEREx, was successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, the start of two separate missions to map and study the universe and observe the sun’s impact on solar weather.
According to NASA, the spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:10 p.m. PDT on March 11, alongside four small satellites for NASA’s PUNCH mission, which will investigate how the Sun’s corona transforms into the solar wind.
This was the third flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, according to SpaceX. NASA and SpaceX are aiming to launch another Falcon 9 with astronauts headed to the International Space Station on March 12 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Ground controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) established communication with SPHEREx at 9:31 p.m. PDT, confirming its operational status. Over the next month, engineers will ensure the spacecraft functions as expected before it begins its two-year prime mission. SPHEREx, which stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, will create a 3D map of the entire celestial sky every six months, providing a wide perspective to complement the work of more narrow focused space telescopes, such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope.
By measuring the distances of 450 million galaxies, scientists aim to better understand cosmic inflation, the rapid expansion of the universe that occurred moments after the big bang. Additionally, SPHEREx will analyze the total light emitted by all galaxies to uncover how they formed and evolved.
Beyond studying galaxies, SPHEREx will scan the Milky Way for frozen water and carbon dioxide, essential components for life. By identifying where these molecules reside in space, the mission could provide insights into the conditions that led to life’s emergence.
“Questions like ‘How did we get here?’ and ‘Are we alone?’ have been asked by humans for all of history,” said James Fanson, SPHEREx project manager at JPL. “I think it’s incredible that we are alive at a time when we have the scientific tools to actually start to answer them.”
The PUNCH satellites, which separated from the Falcon 9 about 53 minutes after launch, will begin a 90-day commissioning period. During this phase, they will calibrate their instruments and align into formation to function as a single imaging system. The PUNCH mission aims to provide “global, 3D observations of the inner solar system and the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, to learn how its mass and energy become the solar wind” helping scientists understand the sun’s effect on space weather, which can endanger spacecraft and astronauts.
“The space between planets is not an empty void. It’s full of turbulent solar wind that washes over Earth,” said Craig DeForest, the mission’s principal investigator, at the Southwest Research Institute. “The PUNCH mission is designed to answer basic questions about how stars like our Sun produce stellar winds, and how they give rise to dangerous space weather events right here on Earth.”
Both missions are in low Earth, Sun-synchronous orbits, ensuring a constant vantage point relative to the Sun. This setup is critical for SPHEREx to shield its instruments from sunlight and for PUNCH to maintain a steady view of solar phenomena.
“Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and sending both SPHEREx and PUNCH up on a single rocket doubles the opportunities to do incredible science in space,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
SPHEREx’s mission is managed by JPL, with scientific analysis led by teams from 10 institutions in the U.S., South Korea, and Taiwan. The data will be processed at Caltech’s IPAC Infrared Science Archive and made publicly available. PUNCH is managed by the Southwest Research Institute, which designed and built the spacecraft.
SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, March 12 for a Falcon 9 launch of 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 10:20 p.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 2:20 a.m. on Thursday, March 13. If needed, additional launch opportunities are also available on Thursday, March 13 starting at 9:53 p.m. ET
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