The agency is targeting a late February launch. SPHEREx (Spectrophotometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reunification and Ice Explorer) observatory, a space telescope that will create a 3D map of the entire sky to help scientists investigate the origins of our universe. of NASA Punch (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, which will study the Sun’s outflow of material, or the origin of the solar wind, will also go into space with the telescope.
NASA and SpaceX will launch the mission aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in a series of pre-launch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel, including a launch week science briefing. NASA will provide additional details regarding the media event schedule as the launch date approaches.
Media interested in covering the launch should apply. Media approval. The application deadline for US citizens is 11:59 pm EST, Thursday, February 6, while international media without US citizenship must apply by 11:59 pm, Monday, January 20.
of NASA Media Approval Policy Available online. For questions about authentication, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact the newsroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 321-867-2468.
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-9130-.
Updates on spacecraft launch preparations are available at the agency. SPHEREx Blog And Punch blog.
The SPHEREx mission will observe millions of stars and galaxies in infrared light, a range of wavelengths not visible to the human eye. With this map, SPHEREx will enable scientists to study the rapid expansion of the universe after inflation, or a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. The observatory will also measure the collective brightness of nearby and distant galaxies, including the light of hidden galaxies that have not been observed individually, and water, carbon dioxide, and water for life in our home galaxy. And deposits of other important ingredients will be explored.
Launching as a rideshare with SPHEREx, the agency’s PUNCH mission consists of four suitcase-sized satellites that will orbit Earth’s day-night line and observe the Sun and space with a combined view. Working together, the four satellites will map the region where the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, transitions into the solar wind, or the continuous outflow of material from the Sun.
The SPHEREx Observatory is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for the Astrophysics Division within the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The mission’s principal investigator is based jointly at NASA JPL and Caltech. Before Ball Aerospace, BAE Systems built the telescope, provided the spacecraft bus, and demonstrated the observatory integration. Scientific analysis of the SPHEREx data will be conducted by a team of scientists located at 10 institutions in the United States, two in South Korea and one in Taiwan. Data will be processed and archived. IPAC at Caltech. The SPHEREx dataset will be publicly available.
The agency’s PUNCH mission is led by the Southwest Research Institute office in Boulder, Colorado. The mission is managed for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, manages the launch service for the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions.
For more details on the SPHEREx mission and updates on launch preparations, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex
Finally
Alice Fisher (SPHEREx)
Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier (Punch)
Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
Laura Aguirre
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-593-6245
laura.aguiar@nasa.gov