NASA Interview Opportunity: Two Missions, One Rocket: One Shared Goal

Join a NASA expert on Wednesday, Feb 26 & Thursday, 27, 2025 to chat about the upcoming ride-sharing launch of SPHEREx and PUNCH missions!

Quick Summary:
SPHEREx and PUNCH will be launching together from Vandenberg, California, as early as February 27, 2025.
SPHEREx is a space telescope that will map the entire sky in 102 colors to study the origins of our universe, galaxies within it, and life’s key ingredients in our own galaxy.
PUNCH will study the outer portion of the Sun, the corona, to understand how solar wind forms.

Interview Details:
Taped interviews are available on Wednesday, Feb 26: Taped Interviews ONLY --> 6 am - 12 pm PST (9-3 pm EST)
Live interviews are available Thursday, Feb 27: LIVE interviews ONLY--> 5 am - 12 pm PST (8 am - 3 pm EST)
Click here to request an interview: https://forms.gle/kBZkx2RjuB1wbE6J9
Requests sent via the above form will have scheduling priority.
Please do not email requests.

Contributing new pieces to NASA's cosmic puzzle, the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions are cost-effectively launching together to analyze the cosmos and Sun, respectively.

NASA’s newest astrophysics observatory is SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer). The space telescope will observe hundreds of millions of galaxies near and far, mapping the entire sky in 102 wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye. This will help scientists answer major questions about why the universe looks the way it does, how galaxies form and evolve, and the origins and abundance of water and other key ingredients for life in our galaxy. SPHEREx provides a big-picture view of the universe, complementing the work of more targeted telescopes like NASA’s Hubble and Webb.

Ride-sharing with SPHEREx is NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission. PUNCH will close a 60-year gap of knowledge about how the outer atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, becomes the solar wind. PUNCH will utilize four small satellites to provide the first-ever 3D global view of the Sun’s solar wind that gives rise to the magnificent northern and southern light shows called auroras.

Join a NASA expert to learn more about these two missions launching to space this week!

Suggested Anchor Intro:
Two missions, one launch, and one shared goal: understanding the bigger picture. Tomorrow/Today NASA will launch two separate missions on the same rocket, SPHEREx and PUNCH. SPHEREx will help us better understand the origins of our universe, while PUNCH will teach us more about the star that’s closest to home. Joining us now is NASA expert xxxx from the xxx mission.

Suggested Questions covering both missions:
1. The launch is Today/Tomorrow. What are you excited about for this launch?
2. We hear that these missions will ride-share to space. Where are these two missions headed?
3. How will each of these missions study the stars to help us better understand the big cosmic picture?
4. Where can our viewers learn more about these missions?
@NASASun for PUNCH. Also online at nasa.gov/punch
@NASAJPL for SphereX. Alson online at nasa.gov/spherex