# Falcon 9 Block 5 | SPHEREx & PUNCH: launch

> Falcon 9 Block 5 by SpaceX from Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA. Flown: Success.

- Canonical page: https://spacenexus.us/launch/cmtdf1gqz00y1oqhxiv2jv3c7
- This Markdown version: https://spacenexus.us/launch/cmtdf1gqz00y1oqhxiv2jv3c7.md
- Data as of: 2026-10-20 02:15 UTC (last Launch Library 2 sync)
- How the numbers are made: https://spacenexus.us/launch-slips/method

## Facts

- Launch: Falcon 9 Block 5 | SPHEREx & PUNCH
- Mission: SPHEREx & PUNCH
- Provider: SpaceX
- Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
- Pad: Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
- Country of the launch site: USA
- Date (UTC): Wed, Mar 12, 03:10 UTC (2025-03-12T03:10:12.000Z)
- Launch window: 2025-03-12 03:09 UTC to 2025-03-12 03:10 UTC
- Status: completed (Launch Library 2: Success)
- Outcome: Success
- Real slips recorded: 0; other date moves (placeholder rolls, firmings), not slips: 0

## Mission description

Quoted from Launch Library 2: SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission to survey the sky in the near-infrared light, which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions involving the birth of the universe, and the subsequent development of galaxies. It also will search for water and organic molecules – essentials for life as we know it – in regions where stars are born from gas and dust, known as stellar nurseries, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming. 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 spacecraft also will track coronal mass ejections – large eruptions of solar material that can drive large space weather events near Earth – to better understand their evolution and develop new techniques for predicting such eruptions.

## Date history

No date change recorded for this launch since our ledger began.

## Sources

- [Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs](https://thespacedevs.com): launch names, providers, rockets, pads, dates and status
- [SpaceNexus Launch Ledger (our own record of every date change)](https://spacenexus.us/launch-slips/method)
- [Mission information (link from Launch Library 2)](https://www.spacelaunchnow.me/launch/falcon-9-block-5-spherex-punch)

## Licence and credits

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- Launch facts (names, providers, rockets, pads, dates, status): Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs (thespacedevs.com), credited and not relicensed by SpaceNexus.
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