How to Watch NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions Launch on a SpaceX Rocket

Science|NASA Will Launch a Space Telescope and New Solar Satellites: How to Watch

After more than a week of delays, two NASA missions are again scheduled for a late-night launch aboard a single rocket. Both aim to unravel mysteries about the universe — one by peering far from Earth, the other by looking closer to home.

The rocket’s 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’s outer atmosphere and solar wind.

Here’s what to know about the launch on Monday night.

When will the missions launch, and how can I watch?

SPHEREx and PUNCH are expected to lift off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California no earlier than Monday, March 10, at 11:10 p.m. Eastern time.

That date has been pushed back several times since late February. The most recent postponement occurred on Saturday night. Two hours before the scheduled flight time, SpaceX announced on the website X that additional checks were needed on the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA is streaming a live broadcast of the launch on Monday night, beginning at 10:15 p.m. Eastern time. Should weather or other conditions prevent liftoff from occurring on Monday, the launch window remains open through April.

What is SPHEREx?

SPHEREx is short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer. The mouthful of a name is fitting for the vastness of its goal: to survey the entire sky in 102 colors, or wavelengths, of infrared light.