SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 rocket loaded with NASA missions

After several delays, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA missions out of Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The rocket carried two projects: the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions.

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.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Following stage separation, about eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket's first stage booster returned to Vandenberg Space Force Base, landing at Landing Zone 4.

The launch had been scrubbed several times due to unfavorable weather conditions.