Weather 20% Favorable for Today’s Launch

NASA is targeting 11:10 p.m. EDT (8:10 p.m. PDT) for 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. The SPHEREx observatory and the rideshare PUNCH satellites will lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Weather officials are predicting a 20% chance of favorable weather conditions for today’s launch, with the thick cloud rule serving as the primary weather concern.

The SPHEREx mission will provide an all-sky spectral survey, creating a 3D map of the entire sky in 102 infrared wavelengths, which are not visible to the human eye. The space observatory will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way over a two-year planned mission to help scientists investigate the origins of our universe.

NASA’s PUNCH mission will study origins of the Sun’s outflow of material, or the solar wind, capturing continuous 3D images of the Sun’s corona and the solar wind’s journey into the solar system. PUNCH will deepen our understanding of the Sun and solar wind and how they affect humanity’s technology on Earth and our continued exploration of the solar system.

The SPHEREx mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. BAE Systems built the telescope and the spacecraft bus. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, Texas, leads the PUNCH mission and will operate the four spacecraft from its facilities in Boulder, Colorado.  NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is managing the launch services.

Watch NASA’s live launch coverage beginning at 10:15 p.m. EDT (7:15 p.m. PDT) on NASA+ and the agency’s website.

Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. You can also continue following along right here on the blog as we take you through the entire flight profile for the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions.