PUNCH spacecraft undergo final test and integration
Technicians use fluorescence to inspect wiring on a PUNCH spacecraft, in the runup to integration with SPHEREx (conical shroud in background) and their joint launch deployer.
The four PUNCH spacecraft are now at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California, undergoing final test and integration to the “launch stack” with the SPHEREx spacecraft. All five spacecraft are planned to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base no earlier than February 27, 2025.
The PUNCH integration “away team” are carrying out comprehensive tests on each of the four spacecraft, including exercising the instrument doors and solar arrays, verifying the on-board computers and instruments work properly, and testing the communications links. The four spacecraft will be bolted to a single deployer ring for launch into Sun-synchronous dawn/dusk polar orbit during an evening launch window.
The four PUNCH spacecraft, in their aluminum handling fixtures, are lined up undergoing checkouts before final integration and launch (planned no earlier than 27-Feb-2025).
