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NASA's PUNCH satellites successfully launch to study the solar wind

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.

Led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in the US, the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will provide unprecedented global, 3D observations of the sun's corona and how it drives space weather phenomena including solar flares and coronal mass ejections that can disrupt satellites, power grids, and communications on Earth. By improving our understanding of these processes, PUNCH will help improve forecasts of severe space weather events.

As well as contributing to the mission's scientific goals, RAL Space teams have designed, developed, and manufactured the systems for the mission's four visible-light cameras. These cameras will capture a unique perspective of the evolving solar wind, delivering critical data to scientists worldwide.

"It's incredibly exciting to see PUNCH in orbit and ready to begin its mission," says Dr. Jackie Davies, RAL Space's head of Heliospheric Â鶹ÒùÔºics and UK Science Lead for PUNCH. "The camera systems we've developed will provide an innovative view of the solar wind, helping scientists understand how space weather forms and evolves. This research is vital for protecting technology and infrastructure on Earth, and we're looking forward to seeing the first images in the near future."

Now that the spacecraft are in orbit, RAL Space will also serve as the mission's in-flight calibration lead. The four PUNCH satellites work together as a single "virtual instrument," undertaking the precise calibration essential to ensure the highest quality data throughout the mission.

PUNCH has now entered a 90-day commissioning phase, managed from SwRI's Mission Operations Center in Boulder, Colorado. Science operations will officially begin in June 2025, with the Science Operations Center sharing data globally via NASA's Solar Data Analysis Center.

"Seeing the successful launch is a proud moment for the entire PUNCH team across RAL Space, SwRI, and the US Naval Research Laboratory," says Dr. Nick Waltham, Technology Research and Innovation Theme Lead at RAL Space. "It's incredibly rewarding to know that our long-standing expertise in imaging systems will soon be providing new insights into our sun's outer atmosphere."

PUNCH launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sharing its ride to space with NASA's SPHEREx observatory—the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, which will map the sky in infrared to study the origins of galaxies and water in planetary systems.