NASA is now targeting an evening launch window for PUNCH and SPHEREx that opens at 10:09 P.M. EST on Tuesday, March 4. On March 2, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission into low Earth orbit.

The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the cosmos, while the four satellites of the PUNCH mission track the evolution of the solar wind in three dimensions.

NASA will launch the SPHEREx telescope to uncover the ingredients for life in our galaxy, as well as the PUNCH mission to study the sun’s mysteries.

As the agency's SPHEREx space telescope and PUNCH solar mission rode toward their orbital stations tonight (March 11) at 11:10 p.m. EST (0310 March 12 GMT), members of mission control appeared elated, onlookers who caught a peek at the liftoff cheered, and the scientists who built these missions exuded a blend of relief and excitement.

NASA successfully launched two major space missions together on a single rocket!The first is SPHEREx, a space telescope designed to search for essential life-forming elements in the Milky Way. While,

NASA’s newest space missions, SPHEREx and PUNCH, are off to space, launching together aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:10 p.m. ET

NASA’s newest space telescope rocketed into orbit Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before — a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time.