Rehearsing for the Big Moment
Earth Orbiting Missions Operation Center at NASA JPL, where engineers control and monitor the SPHEREx observatory after launch.
During payload testing, the SPHEREx team prepared for launch and post-launch operations. In October 2024, we conducted the first Operational Readiness Test (ORT), simulating nominal launch and post-launch events. Such tests validate the adequacy of our procedures and training for mission success.
Inside EOMOC during Operation Readiness Test
SPHEREx Instrument Team inside EOMOC during Operation Readiness Test. From top to bottom: Dr. Phil Korngut, Dr. Chi Nguyen, Dr. Howard Hui
Recent News
SPHEREx Honored with RNASA Stellar Award
The Rotary National Award for Space Achievement awarded their 2026 Stellar Award to JPL's SPHEREx team for their outstanding contributions to space science and technology.
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NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds — vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to...
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NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Tracks Brightening of Interstellar Comet
NASA’s SPHEREx mission turned its infrared gaze on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in December 2025, adding to the deep pool of information the agency has gathered on what is only the third such object to be discovered passing through our solar system.
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SPHEREx Mission Team Wins ECAD Award
The SPHEREx Mission Team wins the Sylvia A. Earle Award for Exploration Excellence.
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NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory Completes First Cosmic Map Like No Other
Launched in March, NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky in 102 colors. While not visible to the human eye, these 102 infrared wavelengths of light are prevalent in the cosmos, and observing the entire sky this way enables scientists to answer big questions, including how a dramatic event that occurred in the first billionth of a trillionth of a...
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