{"id":23798,"date":"2025-03-12T03:17:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T04:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23798"},"modified":"2025-03-12T04:23:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T04:23:38","slug":"spacex-launches-nasas-spherex-and-punch-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23798","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Launches NASA\u2019s SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the cosmos, while the four satellites of the PUNCH mission track the evolution of the solar wind in three dimensions.<\/p>\n

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Two NASA missions finally launched from the California coast and soared toward the stars late Tuesday night, overcoming a week of delays to get to orbit. Both aim to unravel mysteries about the universe \u2014 one by peering far from Earth, the other by looking closer to home.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s chief passenger is SPHEREx<\/a>, a space telescope that will take images of the entire sky in more than a hundred colors that are invisible to the human eye. Accompanying the telescope is a suite of satellites known collectively as PUNCH<\/a>, which will study the sun\u2019s outer atmosphere and solar wind.<\/p>\n

The launch has been postponed several times since late February for mission specialists to perform additional checks on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and NASA spacecraft. Gloomy weather also contributed to a scrubbed launch on Monday night. But that was forgotten on Tuesday as SPHEREx and PUNCH lifted off from the Vandenburg Space Force Base against the black expanse of clear California sky at 11:11 p.m. Eastern time.<\/p>\n

Roughly two minutes later, the rocket\u2019s reusable booster separated from the upper stage and flipped back toward Earth for a controlled landing near the launch site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Forty-two minutes into the launch, SPHEREx floated away from the rocket\u2019s upper stage. The four PUNCH satellites, released in pairs, followed suit about 10 minutes later. Both mission teams are awaiting signal from the spacecraft, which are orbiting approximately 400 miles above Earth\u2019s terminator, the line separating day and night on our planet<\/a>, and over the north and south poles. This type of orbit is known as sun-synchronous because it keeps the spacecraft oriented in the same position relative to our sun.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s advantageous for both spacecraft. PUNCH will have a clear view of the sun around all times, while SPHEREx will stay pointed away from it, avoiding light from our home star that could mask fainter signals from faraway stars and galaxies.<\/p>\n

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The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the cosmos, while the four satellites of the PUNCH mission track the evolution of the solar wind in three dimensions.Two NASA missions finally launched from the California coast and soared toward the stars late Tuesday night, overcoming a week of delays to get to orbit. Both aim to unravel mysteries about the universe \u2014 one by peering far from Earth, the other by looking closer to home.The rocket\u2019s chief passenger is SPHEREx, a space telescope that will take images of the entire sky in more than a hundred colors that are invisible to the human eye. Accompanying the telescope is a suite of satellites known collectively as PUNCH, which will study the sun\u2019s outer atmosphere and solar wind.The launch has been postponed several times since late February for mission specialists to perform additional checks on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and NASA spacecraft. Gloomy weather also contributed to a scrubbed launch on Monday night. But that was forgotten on Tuesday as SPHEREx and PUNCH lifted off from the Vandenburg Space Force Base against the black expanse of clear California sky at 11:11 p.m. Eastern time.Roughly two minutes later, the rocket\u2019s reusable booster separated from the upper stage and flipped back toward Earth for a controlled landing near the launch site.Forty-two minutes into the launch, SPHEREx floated away from the rocket\u2019s upper stage. The four PUNCH satellites, released in pairs, followed suit about 10 minutes later. Both mission teams are awaiting signal from the spacecraft, which are orbiting approximately 400 miles above Earth\u2019s terminator, the line separating day and night on our planet, and over the north and south poles. This type of orbit is known as sun-synchronous because it keeps the spacecraft oriented in the same position relative to our sun.That\u2019s advantageous for both spacecraft. PUNCH will have a clear view of the sun around all times, while SPHEREx will stay pointed away from it, avoiding light from our home star that could mask fainter signals from faraway stars and galaxies.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23800,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23801,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23798\/revisions\/23801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}