Weather Issues Impact SPHEREx Mission, But its Ready Now

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s SPHEREx observatory and PUNCH satellites at Space Launch Complex 4 East from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 8, 2025. (SpaceX)

One can expect weather issues in Florida, but California? It seems that the west coast also has its issues, per a tweet yesterday from SpaceX:

Due to unfavorable weather at the launch site and an issue with one of the @NASA spacecraft, we are standing down from tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions. Next launch opportunity is Tuesday, March 11 at 8:10 p.m. PT

Given that the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory mission has gotten this far with all of the challenges along the way, I think a few extra days are okay. NASA is also keen to see the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) satellites aloft as well.

Everything is ready to go in less than an hour (8:10 p.m. PDT, 11:10 p.m EDT). If you would like to watch it, you can go to NASA+.

Update: The SPHEREx and PUNCH missions were successfully launched yesterday evening, March 11th.