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How to watch SPHEREx & PUNCH

Tue, Mar 11, 8:10 PM PDT

Wed, Mar 12, 03:10 UTC · launch window 1 minutes

Falcon 9 Block 5 · SpaceX · Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

This launch has flown. The result, the replay and the date history are on the launch page.

How firm is the date: Flown
Date history: No date change recorded for this launch.
At the pad when the window opens: Twilight launch, dark sky. The sky is dark at the ground, but sunlight still reaches the exhaust plume high above. These are the launches that can produce the glowing, spreading "jellyfish" plumes, if the sky is clear.

Watch online

Watch in person

Straight-line distance from each place to the Vandenberg pad we use for geometry; what you can see follows from the distance. The public viewing spots, fees and road closures are in the Vandenberg viewing guide.

Santa Barbara54 mi (87 km), look WNW
The whole ascent, low on the horizon.
Los Angeles141 mi (227 km), look WNW
A rising light on the horizon: night launches only.
San Diego238 mi (384 km), look NW
A rising light on the horizon: night launches only.

Vandenberg Space Force Base (official site)

Plan a trip: every Vandenberg launch in your dates

What to expect

We have not checked this mission's landing plan by hand. If a booster flies back to a landing zone on land, its landing brings a sonic boom; the provider's mission page says where the booster lands.
Sound travels about a kilometre every 3 seconds (a mile every 5), so at a distance you see liftoff before you hear it.

Sources

Launch time, status and pad: the Launch Library 2 manifest as synced by SpaceNexus; times move, and this page follows them.
Day or night: computed from the sun's position at the pad at the time shown. Distances: computed from coordinates.

The launch page: countdown, stream, date history →Every Vandenberg launch this month →Where to watch at Vandenberg →Which launches slip, and by how much →

Newsletter

Watch online

Watch in person

What to expect

Sources