SPHEREx
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) is a NASA all-sky infrared survey observatory that maps the sky in 102 color bands - more than any previous all-sky survey. Its three science goals are to probe cosmic inflation by tracing the large-scale structure of hundreds of millions of galaxies, measure the history of cosmic star formation, and map the abundance of water and carbon-dioxide ice in the Milky Way's star-forming regions.
PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) is a NASA constellation of four small spacecraft - one narrow-field coronagraph and three wide-field heliospheric imagers - that together track how solar coronal material becomes the solar wind flowing through the inner solar system. PUNCH flew as a rideshare, sharing the fairing with SPHEREx.
LIFTOFF
MAR 12 2025launched fromSLC-4EVandenberg
aboardFalcon 9 B5F9-444intoSSO
Booster
B1088.3
Landed on ground pad · LZ-4
Payloads · 5
- 01
SPHEREx (MIDEX-9/Explorer-102)
Near-infrared astronomy
- 02
PUNCH-NFI (SMEX-15A/Explorer-98)
Heliophysics
- 03
PUNCH-WFI 1 (SMEX-15B/Explorer-99)
Heliophysics
- 04
PUNCH-WFI 2 (SMEX-15C/Explorer-101)
Heliophysics
- 05
PUNCH-WFI 3 (SMEX-15D/Explorer-100)
Heliophysics
