PUNCH Satellites Mate to ESPA Ring

Technicians integrate NASA’s four PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) satellites to the evolved expendable launch vehicle secondary payload adapter array ring inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. PUNCH will study origins of the Sun’s outflow of material, or the solar wind, capturing continuous 3D images of the Sun’s corona and the solar wind’s journey into the solar system. The PUNCH mission is launching as a rideshare with NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observatory scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:09 p.m. EST (7:09 p.m. PST), Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, at Space Launch Complex 4 East from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.