Observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS by the James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA–Korea SPHEREx mission were finalized in February 2026.
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope launched in March 2025.
SPHEREx captured data in 102 distinct wavelengths that are invisible to human eyes.
SPHEREx surveys the sky from Earth orbit about 14.5 times per day.
SPHEREx has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky.
Reflected light from satellites would affect 96 percent of all images taken by NASA's SPHEREx telescope, the European Space Agency's planned ARRAKIHS telescope, and China's planned Xuntian telescope.
SpaceX's launches in 2023 for NASA included SPHEREx/PUNCH, TRACERS, and IMAP/SWFO-L1/Carruthers.
The first stage booster previously launched NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, and seven Starlink missions.
The first stage booster for the Saturday mission will be on its 11th flight, previously launching NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, and six Starlink missions.
This is the 11th flight for the first stage booster supporting the Group 11-19 mission, which previously launched NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, and six Starlink missions.
The first stage booster previously launched NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, and six Starlink missions.
The first stage booster previously launched NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, and five Starlink missions.
SPHEREx was originally scheduled to launch in 2023 but was delayed largely due to issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA selected SPHEREx in 2019 as a medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) mission with a cost cap of $242,000,000.
NASA selected SpaceX in 2021 to launch the SPHEREx mission.
SPHEREx will launch in April 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base with the NASA heliophysics mission PUNCH flying as a secondary payload.
SPHEREx has a planned two-year mission to collect data on more than 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way.
The SPHEREx launch remains scheduled for no earlier than April 2025, the date NASA announced when it awarded the SPHEREx launch contract.
NASA announced the inclusion of PUNCH as a rideshare on the SPHEREx Falcon 9 launch on 2024-08-03.
NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX in February 2021 for the Falcon 9 launch of SPHEREx valued at $98,800,000.