Following a successful launch in the early hours of Wednesday morning (12 March 2025) U.K. time, the PUNCH spacecraft are poised to begin their two-year mission to study the sun's outer atmosphere and its transformation into the solar wind.

The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the cosmos, while the four satellites of the PUNCH mission track the evolution of the solar wind in three dimensions.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying PUNCH successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:10 P.M. EDT on March 11. By early on March 12, the four satellites of the PUNCH constellation had been deployed and ground controllers confirmed acquisition of signal with them.