NASA's SPHEREx Observatory launches with BAE Systems-built spacecraft bus and telescope
BROOMFIELD, Colo., March 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BAE Systems (LON: BA) is celebrating the successful launch of NASA's Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) Observatory from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The observatory launched alongside NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
BAE Systems built the spacecraft bus and telescope for the mission, along with leading observatory integration and environmental testing. SPHEREx is also equipped with the company's RAD750® single board computer, the core of the command and data handling subsystem that is used to control the spacecraft and transmit data.
Over the course of a minimum two-year mission, SPHEREx will conduct four all-sky spectral surveys, observing the distribution of more than 450 million unique galaxies and delivering a 3D map of the universe in 102 infrared colors. These surveys will provide an abundance of new data on key astronomical questions: How did cosmic inflation in the moments following the Big Bang shape the universe today; what can the glowing light of distant galaxies teach us about how they formed; and how abundant and important are life-sustaining ingredients like water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia in planet-formation?
'The launch of SPHEREx is a remarkable achievement,' said Bonnie Patterson, deputy vice president and general manager of Civil Space for BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems. 'This observatory will help us look back in time to answer significant questions about how the universe formed and the phenomena that continue to evolve it today. We are proud to be part of the team that made this mission possible.'
In addition to its primary missions, SPHEREx will also identify targets of interest for additional observations by the James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories. BAE Systems assisted in launch operations and will continue to support spacecraft commissioning over the coming months. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) developed the primary imaging payload. Caltech's Dr. Jamie Bock is the mission's principal investigator.
SPHEREx continues BAE Systems' long support of NASA's astrophysics missions, including contributions to the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The company is also working to mature technologies for NASA's future Habitable Worlds Observatory.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
West Wing Civil War Erupts Over Who Caused Trump-Musk Explosion
A top White House aide nursing a grudge against Elon Musk is being partly blamed for igniting President Donald Trump's war with the Tesla CEO. Sergio Gor, the White House director of presidential personnel, urged Trump to rescind his nomination for Musk's personal friend Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, sparking a rift between the president and the world's richest man that erupted in public Thursday, the New York Post reported. 'The NASA guy was the straw that broke the camel's back,' a White House source told the Post, suggesting that Gor wanted 'to bury the knife in [Musk's] back.' Four sources inside or close to the White House told the outlet that Gor, 38, has been holding a grudge against Musk, 53, ever since the billionaire 'humiliated' him in front of the Trump Cabinet for not moving fast enough on staffing the administration. 'Sergio was upset about Elon dressing him down at the meeting and said he was going to 'get him,'' another source said. '[Pulling Isaacman's nomination] was the modern-day equivalent of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Sure, Sergio got a scalp, but what did POTUS get?' Gor reportedly developed a deep personal dislike of Musk while the tech mogul was still on friendly terms with Trump, and gleefully celebrated dips in Musk's wealth when Tesla stock plunged, according to three of the sources. 'He'd go around showing Tesla stock prices going down and laugh about it,' one White House source told the Post. The outlet said Gor denied taking pleasure in Tesla's falling stock or ever seeking revenge against Musk. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon backed up Gor, saying the Trump-Musk feud had been simmering for months over issues like Musk's opposition to Trump's tariff strategy. 'Did Elon have a problem with Sergio?' Bannon, a longtime Musk antagonist told the Post. 'Yes, the fact that we are not hiring enough—guess what—liberal f---ing progressive Democrats.' He argued Trump engaged in the bitter spat because he's 'upset' over Musk's failure to deliver significant savings at DOGE and his reported drug use. Yet, Trump and Musk heaped praise on each other at a congenial send-off last Friday, following the conclusion of Musk's term as a special advisor. It wasn't until Trump withdrew Isaacman's nomination shortly after Musk—his biggest financial backer in 2024—left the White House, that the billionaire launched a sharp attack on the president's cherished 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' calling it a 'disgusting abomination' in an X post on Tuesday. The Trump administration has cited Isaacman's past donations to Democrats as the reason for Trump rescinding his nomination just days before his Senate confirmation. But Isaacman, another billionaire in Trumpworld, questioned that explanation, noting his donations have long been public knowledge. 'I don't blame an influential adviser coming in and saying, 'Look, here's the facts, and I think we should kill this guy,'' Isaacman said on the All-In podcast Wednesday. 'And the president's got to make a call and move on.' For now, it seems the administration is sticking with Gor. The Post said that White House Communications Director Steven Cheung called Gor 'a vital member of the team and he has helped President Trump put together an administration that is second to none.' One source close to the White House speculated, however, that Gor could become the fall guy and help mend the Trump-Musk relationship—if Musk can be convinced that the president was merely being 'played' by Gor.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
What the Trump-Musk Feud Means for SpaceX and NASA
The U.S. government relies on SpaceX to support NASA and other agencies, and the company has received more $20 billion in federal contracts for it. As Musk and Trump threaten to cut ties, here's what that would mean for the U.S.'s space ambitions.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
James Webb telescope unveils largest-ever map of the universe, stretching from present day to the dawn of time
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists have unveiled the largest map of the universe ever created. Stretching across a tiny sliver of space and almost all cosmic time, it includes almost 800,000 galaxies imaged across the universe. Some are so far away that they appear as they existed in the infant universe, about 13 billion years ago. The map, released Thursday (June 5) by scientists at the Cosmic Evolution Survey collaboration , covers a 0.54-degree-squared arc of the sky, or about three times as much space as the moon takes up when viewed from Earth. To collect the data for the map, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spent 255 hours observing a region of space nicknamed the COSMOS field. This patch of sky has very few stars, gas clouds or other features blocking our view of the deep universe, so scientists have been surveying it with telescopes across as many wavelengths of light as possible. JWST's observations of the COSMOS field have given us an incredibly detailed view of the universe going back as far as 13.5 billion years. Because the universe has been expanding, visible light that left its source at the other side of the universe gets stretched out, becoming infrared light. This is why JWST was designed to be an extremely sensitive infrared telescope: to detect these faint, stretched-out signals from the beginning of time that we couldn't see with other telescopes. It's already reshaping our understanding of how the universe formed. RELATED STORIES —Catastrophic collision between Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies may not happen after all, new study hints —Universe may revolve once every 500 billion years — and that could solve a problem that threatened to break cosmology —Scientists discover smallest galaxy ever seen: 'It's like having a perfectly functional human being that's the size of a grain of rice' "Since the telescope turned on we've been wondering 'Are these JWST datasets breaking the cosmological model?" Caitlin Casey, a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-lead for the COSMOS project, said in a statement. "The big surprise is that with JWST, we see roughly 10 times more galaxies than expected at these incredible distances. We're also seeing supermassive black holes that are not even visible with Hubble." The raw data from the COSMOS field observations was made publicly available just after it was collected by JWST, but it wasn't easily accessible. Raw data from telescopes like JWST needs to be processed by people with the right technical knowledge and access to powerful computers. The COSMOS collaboration spent two years creating the map from JWST's raw data to make it more accessible for amateur astronomers, undergraduate researchers and the general public to peer into the heart of the universe. You can see it for yourself using COSMOS' interactive map viewer.
