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.