There was a glimmer in the air tonight at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and it wasn’t only because a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took to the skies carrying precious NASA cargo.
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.
“I am so happy that we’re finally in space!” said Farah Alibay, the lead flight system engineer on SPHEREx at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It feels really great to have SPHEREx in space.”
This launch follows an unexpected string of several delays, unfortunate setbacks such as the devastating California wildfires that affected several mission members, and general turmoil at the agency that has been making headlines recently. And, additionally, the combined promise of SPHEREx and PUNCH is huge, both metaphorically and literally. (The integrated SPHEREx and PUNCH stack weighed around 1,667 pounds, or 756 kilograms).
Source:https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/spacex-rocket-launches-nasa-spherex-space-telescope-and-punch-solar-probes
