SPHEREx

• Name — SPHEREx • Names List — Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer • Mission Type — Astrophysics • Operator — NASA • Website — spherex.caltech.edu • Mission Duration — Planned: 25 months Elapsed: March 12, 2025, 03:10:00 • Manufacturer — BAE Systems Inc. (Previously Ball Aerospace & Technologies) • Dimensions — tall, wide and deep • Power — 750 watts • Launch Date — 12 March 2025, 03:10:00 UTC (11 March 2025, 8:10 pm PDT) • Launch Rocket — Falcon 9 Block 5 • Launch Site — Vandenberg, SLC-4E • Launch Contractor — SpaceX • Orbit Reference — Geocentric orbit • Orbit Regime — Sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit • Orbit Inclination — 97 ° • Orbit Period — 90 minutes • Apsis — gee • Instrument Type — telescope • Telescope Wavelength — Near-infrared • Instruments — Spectrophotometer • Trans Band — S-band, Ka-band • Insignia Size — 200px • Programme — Explorers Program • Previous Mission — IXPE (Explorer 97) • Next Mission — TRACERS

• Illustration — Artist's impression of SPHEREx in space

SPHEREx is using a spectrophotometer to perform an all-sky survey to measure near-infrared spectra from 0.75 to 5.0 micrometers. It employs a single instrument with a single observing mode and no moving parts as it maps the entire sky (in 96 different color bands, far exceeding the color resolution of previous all-sky maps) four times during its nominal 25-month mission; the crucial technology is a linear variable filter, as demonstrated by LEISA on New Horizons. It will classify galaxies according to redshift accuracy, categorizing approximately 450 million galaxies and fitting measured spectra to a library of galaxy templates. Specifically, SPHEREx will probe signals from the intra-halo light and from the epoch of reionization. It would explore what drove the early universe inflation, explore the origin and history of galaxies, and explore the origin of water in planetary systems. SPHEREx complements the Euclid and planned Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope spectroscopic surveys. High precision redshift information of foreground galaxies provided by SPHEREx in correspondence with weak gravitational lensing measurements of background galaxies from Euclid and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will allow direct measurement of the dark matter distribution surrounding the foreground galaxies. The SPHEREx low redshift survey allows its measurement of inflationary parameters to be mostly independent, thus providing a new line of evidence.

• Illustration — SPHEREx outer photon shield • Illustration — SPHEREx telescope and detectors The triple mirror telescope has an aperture diameter of 20 centimeters with a 3.5° × 11° field of view and six 2K × 2K mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) photodetector arrays. Each 2K × 2K focal-plane array is covered with a linear variable filter, providing narrow-band response with a band center that varies along one axis of the array. SPHEREx obtains spectra through multiple exposures, placing a given source at multiple positions in the field of view, where it is measured at multiple wavelengths by repointing the spacecraft. The SPHEREx spacecraft and telescope were provided by BAE Systems Inc. Space & Mission Systems division (previously Ball Aerospace & Technologies) while the payload was developed by Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute supplied a non-flight cryogenic test chamber.

• Illustration — SPHEREx–PUNCH Encapsulation The SPHEREx proposal was submitted to NASA on 19 December 2014, and it was selected for further conceptual development (Phase A) on 30 July 2015 for the Small Explorer program (SMEX). The detailed concept study report was submitted to NASA on 19 July 2016, but it was not selected for SMEX. An enhanced version of SPHEREx was submitted on 15 December 2016 as a Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX), and it was selected as a finalist in August 2017, along two other competing missions: Arcus, and Fast Infrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey Explorer (FINESSE). Each team received US$2 million to refine their mission concepts over nine-months. SPHEREx was selected as the winner in February 2019, and the mission was approved to proceed with detailed planning. On 4 February 2021, NASA announced they had selected the SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch the spacecraft, and total cost of the launch would be US$98.8 million. In August 2022 NASA announced that the 4 microsatellites of the PUNCH constellation would be launched as rideshare payloads together with SPHEREx. The mission launched on 11 March 2025. First light was in April 2025. Regular science operation started on 1 May 2025. The total cost of the mission (design, build, launch, and prime operations) was $488 million.