SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission to survey the sky in the near-infrared light Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 300 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.

NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will share a ride to space with SPHEREx. It consists of four suitcase-sized satellites, which will focus on the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) and how it generates the solar wind.

The launch date was Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 3:10 AM (UTC).