BAE Systems delivers NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory

Earlier this month, BAE Systems delivered NASA’s ‘Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionisation and Ices Explorer’ (SPHEREx) Observatory to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The observatory is scheduled to launch in late February alongside NASA’s ‘Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere’ (PUNCH) mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission, scheduled for a minimum two-years, will conduct the first all-sky spectral surveys and gather valuable data to help answer ‘fundamental questions about the universe’.

SPHEREx will use an advanced imager developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to survey the entire sky in near-infra-red light. Over the course of four planned surveys, the observatory will create 3-D, coloured maps of more than 450 million galaxies and millions of stars in the Milky Way.

This data will provide the scientific community with novel insights on the formation of the universe in the moments after the ‘Big Bang’, help determine how galaxies evolve over time, and seek out water and other life-sustaining molecules in areas where planets are forming. SPHEREx will also identify ‘targets of interest’ for follow-up studies by observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope.

BAE Systems built both the ‘spacecraft bus’ and telescope for the observatory; the company also led the spacecraft integration and environmental testing for the mission — and it will support launch operations and spacecraft commissioning.