NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions Face Delay, Await New Launch Date
NASA’s latest ambitious space missions—SPHEREx and PUNCH—will have to wait a little longer before heading to orbit. The two groundbreaking projects, designed to explore fundamental questions about our universe and the Sun, were scheduled to launch together aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. However, NASA and SpaceX announced that they were standing down from the planned liftoff, originally set for Saturday at 10:09 p.m. ET (7:09 p.m. PT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
According to an update from NASA, additional time is required to complete final rocket checkouts before a new launch date is confirmed. Fortunately, multiple launch windows are available through April, providing flexibility for rescheduling.
The initial launch attempt on February 28, 2025 was also delayed due to weather and technical challenges related to integrating both missions onto the rocket. As engineers worked to attach SPHEREx and PUNCH to the Falcon 9 and encapsulate them within a protective faring, unforeseen issues arose, further pushing back the schedule.
Despite the delays, excitement remains high for both missions. SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is a cutting-edge space telescope designed to unlock the secrets of the universe’s evolution and track down the key ingredients for life in the Milky Way. Meanwhile, PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) will provide unprecedented insights into how the Sun shapes the solar system by studying solar wind and the Sun’s corona.
By launching PUNCH as a secondary rideshare mission alongside SPHEREx, NASA maximizes efficiency, ensuring that more science reaches space at a lower cost. Both spacecraft are destined for a sun-synchronous orbit around Earth’s poles, allowing them to maintain a fixed orientation relative to the Sun.
SPHEREx: Unraveling the Origins of the Universe and Life
SPHEREx is an ambitious infrared space telescope designed to map the entire sky in unprecedented detail. By surveying more than 450 million galaxies and over 100 million stars within our Milky Way, SPHEREx aims to answer fundamental cosmic questions. One of its key objectives is to study inflation—the rapid expansion of the universe that occurred a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
Using infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye but ideal for studying stars and galaxies, SPHEREx will capture data in 102 different wavelengths. This ability to separate infrared light into its individual wavelengths allows scientists to analyze the chemical composition of celestial objects, uncovering the building blocks of stars, planets, and potentially habitable environments.
“We are the first mission to look at the whole sky in so many colors,” said Jamie Bock, the SPHEREx principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. “Whenever astronomers look at the sky in a new way, we can expect discoveries.”
Mapping the Universe’s Hidden Light
One of SPHEREx’s most intriguing goals is to measure the total glow of light emitted by all galaxies, including those that are too faint and distant to be detected by other telescopes. This broad survey will provide an unprecedented overview of the universe’s major light sources, revealing cosmic structures and patterns that have remained hidden until now.
SPHEREx will also focus on finding frozen water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other key ingredients for life in molecular clouds—massive regions of gas and dust where new stars and planets are born. Scientists believe that much of the universe’s water exists as ice attached to tiny dust grains in these clouds, possibly explaining how Earth’s oceans formed.
By pinpointing the distribution and abundance of these life-essential compounds, SPHEREx will help astronomers understand how they might be incorporated into developing planetary systems.
SPHEREx and the James Webb Space Telescope: A Perfect Pair
While the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is designed for detailed, targeted observations, SPHEREx serves as a powerful survey telescope, scanning large portions of the sky at a rapid pace. This makes SPHEREx an ideal complement to Webb—if it identifies something of interest, Webb or the Hubble Space Telescope can then zoom in for a closer look.
By combining the strengths of both telescopes, astronomers will be able to connect fine details with the bigger picture, providing a deeper understanding of the universe.
PUNCH: Decoding the Sun’s Influence on Our Solar System
While SPHEREx focuses on the distant universe, PUNCH will stay closer to home, studying the Sun’s corona—the outermost part of its atmosphere—and the solar wind, the stream of charged particles constantly flowing from the Sun.
The mission consists of four suitcase-sized satellites that will work together to create a continuous, panoramic view of the solar wind as it travels through space. Understanding solar wind is crucial because it interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, affecting space weather, satellite operations, and even power grids on our planet.
“These missions cover the full breadth of the science that NASA does every day,” said Dr. Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “PUNCH … will study the Sun in great detail, whereas SPHEREx is a survey mission that will scan the full sky and observe hundreds of millions of stars. Every minute of the day, NASA science missions are exploring the universe at different scales to help us understand the universe we live in and the Sun that keeps our planet alive.”
Looking Ahead: The Next Steps for SPHEREx and PUNCH
Once launched, SPHEREx will orbit Earth at an altitude of 404 miles (650 kilometers) for just over two years, systematically collecting data across the cosmos. PUNCH, meanwhile, will closely monitor the Sun’s outer layers and its influence on the surrounding space environment.
Despite the delay, NASA remains committed to ensuring both missions are fully prepared before their journey to space. The upcoming launch will mark another step forward in humanity’s quest to understand the origins of the universe, the formation of life-essential elements, and the complex relationship between the Sun and our solar system.
As we await a new launch date, the scientific community eagerly anticipates the revolutionary discoveries that SPHEREx and PUNCH will bring. Whether exploring the distant past of the cosmos or the dynamic behavior of our Sun, these missions promise to expand our knowledge of the universe like never before.
NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions to Revolutionize Space Science
NASA’s upcoming SPHEREx and PUNCH missions are set to deliver groundbreaking insights into the universe and our Sun, expanding our understanding of space like never before. While SPHEREx will explore the origins of galaxies and life’s essential building blocks in the Milky Way, PUNCH will capture an unprecedented view of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind.
Originally scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the missions faced delays due to integration challenges and weather concerns. However, NASA assures that multiple launch windows are available through April, and a new date will be announced soon.
SPHEREx: Mapping the Universe in Unprecedented Detail
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is a revolutionary infrared telescope designed to scan the entire sky in 102 different wavelengths. By surveying over 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars within the Milky Way, SPHEREx will help astronomers uncover how the universe evolved and where the essential elements for life originated.
A key goal of SPHEREx is to analyze cosmic inflation—the rapid expansion of the universe that took place right after the Big Bang. Additionally, it will search for water, carbon dioxide, and other life-essential compounds within molecular clouds, which are nurseries for star and planet formation.
“We are the first mission to look at the whole sky in so many colors,” said Jamie Bock, SPHEREx’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Whenever astronomers look at the sky in a new way, we can expect discoveries.”
SPHEREx will also complement the James Webb Space Telescope by providing large-scale surveys. If SPHEREx detects something intriguing, Webb or Hubble can conduct more focused, high-resolution observations.
PUNCH: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun and Solar Wind
PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) is a constellation of four small, suitcase-sized satellites that will work together to create 3D, global observations of how the Sun’s corona transitions into solar wind.
Equipped with synchronized cameras featuring polarized filters—similar to sunglasses—PUNCH will be the first mission to image the corona and solar wind simultaneously. This will help scientists understand how solar storms form and evolve, providing critical insights into space weather.
Space weather, caused by solar wind and storms, can create stunning auroras near Earth’s poles but also disrupt communication satellites and power grids. PUNCH’s observations will be crucial in improving predictions of solar storms, especially as the Sun approaches solar maximum—the most active phase in its 11-year cycle.
“What we hope PUNCH will bring to humanity is the ability to really see, for the first time, where we live inside the solar wind itself,” said Craig DeForest, principal investigator for PUNCH at the Southwest Research Institute.
PUNCH will also collaborate with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which has been making historic close-up observations of the Sun since 2018. By working together, these missions will capture both the big picture and fine details of solar activity.
SPHEREx and PUNCH: A Cost-Effective Space Science Collaboration
By launching PUNCH as a rideshare alongside SPHEREx, NASA is optimizing mission costs while maximizing scientific output.
“Launching this mission as a rideshare bolsters its value to the nation by optimizing every pound of launch capacity to maximize the scientific return for the cost of a single launch,” said Joe Westlake, director of NASA’s heliophysics division.
SPHEREx and PUNCH exemplify NASA’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of space exploration. Whether unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos or enhancing our understanding of the Sun’s influence on the solar system, these missions promise to deliver groundbreaking discoveries that will shape our knowledge of the universe.
