PUNCH Satellites Processing - Integration and Testing

Description

Technicians conduct integration and testing of NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) satellites during prelaunch operations inside Astrotech Space Operations on Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. PUNCH, consisting of four satellites, will produce continuous 3D images of the solar wind and solar storms as it travels from the Sun to Earth to better understand how material in the corona accelerates to become the solar wind that fills the solar system. PUNCH, along with NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), a space telescope, will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in late February 2025.