Here’s the launch plan for NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions: ‘Liftoff is just the beginning’

A conical spacecraft on top of other metal material. The two look to be attached and there are two giant white pieces of the capsule on either side of the payload, ready to close.

After more than a week of delays, two new NASA missions have been cleared for liftoff tonight (March 8). The space agency’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions, which are sharing a ride aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, are scheduled to lift off no earlier than 10:09 p.m. EST (7:09 p.m. PST) tonight from Launch Complex … Read more

SPHEREx launches this week to conduct a cosmic census

SPHEREx in space (artist's concept)

An artist’s concept shows SPHEREx in orbit around Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech An infrared space telescope is scheduled to launch this week to map the sky not once but four times, and with unrivaled clarity. With a launch date as early as Friday, Feb. 28, NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization … Read more

NASA sets launch date for SPHEREx telescope with PUNCH

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NASA’s latest space telescope, SPHEREx, scheduled for launch on 28 February in tandem with another mission called PUNCH, has been hailed for both the colour range of the images it will produce and its ability to “peer back” to the first second after the Big Bang. What the telescope will actually do, however, is somewhat … Read more

NASA’s SPHEREx Launches Soon and Will Search For Water in Molecular Clouds

This image shows a semi-frontal view of the SPHEREx observatory during integration and testing at BAE Systems (Boulder, CO). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

As far as we can tell, life needs water. Cells can’t perform their functions without it. Some have suggested that other exotic liquids, like liquid methane, could do the job on worlds like Saturn’s moon Titan. That idea is highly speculative, though. So, it makes sense that NASA is launching a spacecraft dedicated to the … Read more