SpaceX recently launched two significant NASA missions simultaneously — check out the highlights.

      A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched NASA's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions into orbit.

      Following a postponed launch attempt the previous day due to adverse weather and a technical malfunction, NASA and SpaceX accomplished the launch of two missions—SPHEREx and PUNCH—from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday evening. SPHEREx is a space telescope designed to map the universe, whereas PUNCH consists of four small satellites that will investigate the sun's outer layer and solar winds. Both missions were lifted into orbit by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, known for its reliability.

      The launch was livestreamed by SpaceX and NASA, showcasing the return of the first-stage Falcon 9 booster shortly after it deployed the payloads. This launch marked the third flight for this specific first-stage booster, which had previously carried out missions NROL-126 and Transporter-12. Here’s a look at the launch:

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      Falcon 9 has lifted off from pad 4E in California! pic.twitter.com/1Ef7iIBk2A

      — SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 12, 2025

      And here’s the booster returning:

      Falcon 9 lands at LZ-4 pic.twitter.com/yJu7ApaC93

      — SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 12, 2025

      During its two-year mission, the SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) Observatory will collect data on over 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars. The data will help scientists deepen their understanding of the universe's evolution and identify water and oxygen molecules in deep space—findings that could inform future deep-space missions.

      In a recent statement, Olivier Dore, SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shared his excitement for the mission's possibilities, saying: “The beauty of astronomy is that every time we observe the sky in a new way or from a different angle, we uncover new phenomena.” Dore emphasized that SPHEREx will provide “an unprecedented dataset to mine,” leading to the identification of new cosmic phenomena.

      The PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) satellites will study the sun and its environment, contributing to our understanding of how solar winds affect our solar system. This mission aims to enhance solar weather forecasting and facilitate safer, more efficient spacecraft launches in the future.

      Craig DeForest, the principal investigator for PUNCH, remarked on the two-year mission: “What we hope PUNCH will provide humanity is the ability to accurately visualize, for the first time, our position within the solar wind itself,” noting, “While PUNCH is fundamentally a research mission, we will be able to observe space storms, or coronal mass ejections, in three dimensions as they approach Earth. This is crucial for predicting space weather and its impacts on our space-faring society.”

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      SpaceX is finalizing preparations for the eighth flight test of its Starship megarocket on Friday. As part of this process, the Elon Musk-led company has released a cinematic recap of Starship's most recent flight test that occurred in January.

      Update: The launch of NASA's SPHEREx mission has now been rescheduled to Thursday, March 4, as stated by NASA, "The teams need additional time to assess launch vehicle hardware data."

      Next week will witness the launch of the new NASA astrophysics mission, SPHEREx. This space telescope will explore the universe's origins, investigating how everything that exists expanded from a minute point in the milliseconds following the big bang to its current enormous scale.

      SpaceX is set to launch its Starship megarocket for the eighth time this week on Friday, February 28. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, shared this update in a brief message on X: “Starship Flight 8 flies Friday.”