The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin engines have finished their burn, and the first stage has separated from the rocket.
Launch Vehicle Reaches Max Q, Booster Engines Cutoff
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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin engines have finished their burn, and the first stage has separated from the rocket.
Ignition, and liftoff! At 11:10 p.m. EDT (8:10 p.m. PDT), SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 4 East, carrying NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) missions.
NASA Launch Manager Dr. Denton Gibson has just given the final “go” for launch of NASA’s 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!
SpaceX confirms that fueling for the Falcon 9’s second stage carrying NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) missions is underway at Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Launching as a rideshare with NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) is made up of four 140-pound small satellites.
Moments ago, mission teams polled “go” to begin fueling the SpaceX Falcon 9 first-stage booster.
NASA just began its live broadcast coverage of tonight’s launch of the agency’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) missions.
Weather officials with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 30 are predicting over a 90% chance of favorable weather conditions for tonight’s launch.
Launching as a rideshare with NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), the agency’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission is a constellation of four small satellites that will make global, 3D observations of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona.
Launching with NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) satellites, NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way.