Falcon 9 • SPHEREx and PUNCH

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two co-manifested missions on behalf of NASA. The primary payload was the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory, which is designed to map the entire sky in infrared light. The total mission cost for SPHEREx, including launch is about $488 million. Sharing the Falcon 9 rocket was the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH), which consists of four suitcase-sized satellites designed to map a region around the Sun where the corona transitions to solar wind. Both missions launched to a polar orbit and were deployed about 11 minutes apart. A little less than eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster touched down at Landing Zone 4 back at VSFB. Delayed from Feb. 27/28. Delayed from Feb. 28, Mar. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8. Scrubbed March 10 due to a spacecraft issue.