An ambitious NASA mission to map the sky in 3D using a space-based observatory now has a target launch date of late February 2025.
NASA's compact car-sized observatory, called Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (or just SPHEREx for short), will map the millions of stars and galaxies visible from our planet in every direction, "like scanning the inside of a globe," according to an agency statement. The satellite will launch into a polar orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
