NASA PUNCH mission launch date set to 2025

 

NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission has set its estimated launch date to April of 2025. The mission was originally set to launch in early 2023 but has been moved forward in order to accomodate the rideshare with the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Re-ionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission.

PUNCH consists of four 40 kg satellites launched into Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket where they will be deployed along the planet's day/night line. One satellite is equipped with one Narrow Field Imager (NFI) coronagraph. Three other satellites are equipped with Wide Field Imager (WFI) heliospheric imagers. All of these cameras will be synchronized in-flight to provide NASA with a single large field of view.

The objective of PUNCH is to track and analyze coronal mass ejections, also called "solar flares", in order to better understand them and develop means of predicting them in order to minimize damage caused by the geomagnetic storms that sometimes spawn as a result of these solar flares buffeting Earth.