WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After three postponements, NASA finally launched its two satellites to space with the dual mission to unravel cosmic and solar mysteries.
NASA's astrophysics observatory SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), is on its way to study the origins of the universe and the history of galaxies, and to search for the ingredients of life in galaxy.
SPHEREx lifted off at 8:10 p.m. PDT on Tuesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Riding with SPHEREx aboard the Falcon 9 were four small satellites that make up the agency's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, which will study how the Sun's outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind.
The PUNCH satellites successfully separated about 53 minutes after launch, and ground controllers have established communication with all four PUNCH spacecraft. PUNCH begins a 90-day commissioning period where the four satellites will enter the correct orbital formation, and the instruments will be calibrated as a single 'virtual instrument' before the scientists start to analyze images of the solar wind.
'Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and sending both SPHEREx and PUNCH up on a single rocket doubles the opportunities to do incredible science in space,' said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 'Congratulations to both mission teams as they explore the cosmos from far-out galaxies to our neighborhood star. I am excited to see the data returned in the years to come.'
NASA said that ground controllers at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages SPHEREx, established communications with the space observatory at 9:31 p.m. PDT.
The observatory will begin its two-year prime mission after a one-month checkout period, during which engineers and scientists will make sure the spacecraft is working properly.
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