TCNJ Physics alum Nicholas Erickson is excited to announce the upcoming launch of the combined SphereX/PUNCH mission at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Mr. Erickson has specifically been intimately involved with PUNCH, the secondary payload. Erickson was hired by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) as an integration and testing (I&T) engineer for the Wide Field Imager (WFI) instrument, helping to optically, electrically, and mechanically test the instrument as it was assembled and prepared for delivery. In that role he took on a variety of responsibilities, from testing the engineering model under the night sky at McDonald observatory to full instrument environmental testing, to optical testing of the flight instrument during buildup.
PUNCH (https://punch.space.swri.edu/punch_about_mission.php) is a sun-observing satellite that Erickson has been working on at SwRI for the past three years. It will study how the solar wind is generated and moves through space as it travels to and interacts with Earth. PUNCH is currently scheduled to launch this Saturday, 3/8/25 at 7:09 PM Pacific time (8:09 PM MST, 10:09 PM EST) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as the secondary payload on a Falcon 9 rocket, with the booster rocket returning to the pad after launch. It will be live streamed via a SpaceX youtube link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkTcmQJdGKg) which will have commentary, etc. Updates will be provided if the launch date gets pushed back, which is certainly possible as it’s already been moved around quite a bit; those interested can also check the current status in real-time here: https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/launch/falcon-9-block-5-spherex-punch/#watch-button. Images of the satellites (SphereX main satellite and 4 PUNCH secondary payloads) and the build up process are posted here: https://images.nasa.gov/album/Spacex_SPHEREx_PUNCH
