UPDATE (March 11, 7:53 p.m.) — SpaceX officials in a post on social media said all systems are looking good for Tuesday evening's launch.
WATCH
Watch Falcon 9 launch @NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory and PUNCH satellites to orbit from California https://t.co/gWbiHOEoMh
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 12, 2025
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UPDATE (March 10, 8 p.m.) — SpaceX is now targeting Tuesday night at 8:10 p.m. for the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NASA SPHEREx mission.
SpaceX posted on X Monday night that due to unfavorable weather at the launch site and an issue with one of the NASA spacecraft they will delay the launch until Tuesday night.
UPDATE (March 9, 8 p.m.) — SpaceX is now targeting Monday evening at 8:10 p.m. for the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NASA SPHEREx mission.
According to the space exploration company, a backup opportunity is also available on Tuesday at the same time.
UPDATE (March 9, 10:30 a.m.) — SpaceX announced in a post on X that the planned launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday evening would be pushed back indefinitely.
Officials say the delay was due to the need for continued vehicle checkouts ahead of liftoff.
Standing down from tonight's Falcon 9 launch of @NASA's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions for teams to continue vehicle checkouts ahead of liftoff. Will announce a new launch date once confirmed on the Range
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 9, 2025
SpaceX did not announce when the new targeted launch date would be.
(March 7, 6:20 p.m.) — NASA's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions are scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base Saturday evening.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will deliver the payload into space is currently scheduled to launch at 7:10 p.m. on March 8.
Following stage separation, about eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket's first stage booster will return to Vandenberg Space Force Base, landing at Landing Zone 4. This is expected to produce a sonic boom that may be heard by people throughout Santa Barbara County, as well as San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
According to NASA, the SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) space telescope is headed on a two-year-long mission that includes the first large-scale survey of the key ingredients for life in the Milky Way Galaxy. It will also map the entire sky to create a 3D map of more than 450 million galaxies.
The PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission consists of four small satellites that will observe the Sun and map out the region where the Sun's corona transitions to solar wind.
A livestream of the launch is planned to start about one hour before liftoff.
If Saturday's launch is scrubbed, SpaceX says it has a backup opportunity available at the same time on Sunday.
