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SPHEREx and PUNCH Launch

Live coverage of the launch for SPHEREx, the agency’s newest telescope and its rideshare PUNCH, a mission to study the Sun’s solar wind.

SPHEREx Mission

Livestream on X

Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches NASA's SPHEREx & PUNCH

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches back-to-back Falcon 9 rockets from both coasts. First up is the launch of two NASA missions: SPHEREx and PUNCH on a rideshare mission. Liftoff from pad 4E at Va...

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

SPHEREx & PUNCH

Overview

Destination: Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Mission: Astrophysics

Sun-Synchronous Orbit Space Launch Complex 4E Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA Probability: 90%
B1088 - Landing Zone 4

SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission to survey the sky in the near-infrared light, which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions involving the birth of the universe, and the subsequent development of galaxies. It also will search for water and organic molecules – essentials for life as we know it – in regions where stars are born from gas and dust, known as stellar nurseries, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming. Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 300 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will share a ride to space with SPHEREx. It consists of four suitcase-sized satellites, which will focus on the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) and how it generates the solar wind. The spacecraft also will track coronal mass ejections – large eruptions of solar material that can drive large space weather events near Earth – to better understand their evolution and develop new techniques for predicting such eruptions.

Telemetry

Launch trajectory and telemetry simulations provided by Flight Club - a rocket launch simulator and orbital trajectory visualiser for all things space!

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • March 12, 2025, 4:59 a.m.

Payload Signal Acquisition confirmed.


Cosmic_Penguin • March 12, 2025, 4:06 a.m.

All spacecraft have separated.


LL2 • March 12, 2025, 3:52 a.m.

Official Webcast by NASA has started


Cosmic_Penguin • March 12, 2025, 3:10 a.m.

Liftoff.


Cosmic_Penguin • March 12, 2025, 2:19 a.m.

Updated launch weather.


Falcon 9

Family:
Configuration: Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

See Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    1
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549.0 T
  • Thrust
    7607.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1088

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: November 30, 2024
Last Flight: May 13, 2025
Flights: 6
Landings Attempted: 6
Landings Successful: 6
Previous B1088 Flights

Landing Information

The Falcon 9 booster B1088 has returned to the launch site at LZ-4 after its 3rd flight.

Result: Successful Return to Launch Site landing at Landing Zone 4.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 499 Failures: 14 Pending: 118

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

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Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Space Launch Complex 4E


Falcon 9
Success
15 hours, 31 minutes ago
Starlink Group 11-18
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


New Shepard
Success
22 hours, 2 minutes ago
NS-32
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-32 is the 12th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 32nd in its history.


Falcon 9
Success
1 day, 18 hours ago
GPS III SV08
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Eighth of ten GPS III missions.


Long March 4B
Success
3 days, 7 hours ago
Shijian 26
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Chinese experimental satellite claimed to be for "Earth observation & environmental management" purposes, details not known.


Long March 3
Success
3 days, 18 hours ago
Tianwen-2
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Tianwen-2 is a planned Chinese asteroid sample return and comet orbiter mission due for launch in May 2025. The spacecraft will visit the Near Earth …


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 22 hours ago
Starlink Group 10-32
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Starship
Failure
4 days, 12 hours ago
Flight 9
Orbital Launch Mount A - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

9th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle.


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 18 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-1
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 12-22
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 11-16
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

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