NASA Begins Live Coverage of SPHEREx, PUNCH Missions

Welcome to tonight’s live launch coverage of 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 and SpaceX teams met today and made the decision to proceed with tonight’s launch attempt of the Agency’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions. The SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to liftoff at 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT).

The SPHEREx mission will search for key ingredients for life in our galaxy and improve our understanding of how the universe evolved, while PUNCH will reveal how the Sun’s corona gives rise to the solar wind and space weather that surround our home planet.

We’re just about three hours away from launch of these two NASA science missions aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Watch live coverage of today’s launch activities on NASA+, starting at 10:15 p.m. EDT (7:15 p.m. PDT). Learn how to watch 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 missions. Today’s launch blog comes to you from the NASA News Center at NASA Kennedy.

Join the conversation, follow the launch, and get mission updates from these accounts:

X: @NASA, @NASAJPL, @NASAUniverse, @NASASun, @NASAKennedy, @NASA_LSP
Facebook: NASA, NASA’s JPL, NASA Universe, NASASunScience, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASAJPL, @NASAUniverse

Visit the NASA website for more information about SPHEREx and PUNCH.