PUNCH Satellites Lift to Work Stand fo Testing Operations

Technicians use an overheard crane to lift NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) spacecraft onto a work stand for testing operations at the Astrotech Processing Facility on Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. PUNCH, consisting of four satellites, will produce continuous 3D images of the solar wind and solar storms as it travels from the Sun to Earth to better understand how material in the corona accelerates to become the solar wind that fills the solar system. PUNCH will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in late February 2025.