As the agency's SPHEREx space telescope and PUNCH solar mission rode toward their orbital stations at 10:09 p.m. EST (0209 March 9 GMT), members of mission control appeared elated, onlookers who caught a peek at the liftoff cheered, and the scientists who built these missions exuded a blend of relief and excitement.

The $488 million Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years, and how the universe expanded so fast in its first moments.

NASA and SpaceX successfully launched their SPHEREx and PUNCH missions into orbit Tuesday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, to "collect" data on the sun and millions of galaxies.

After initially scrubbing the mission Monday, SpaceX successfully carried out a launch from the Southern California coast.

Nasa launched the $488 million Spherex space telescope on Tuesday to map the entire sky and understand galaxy formation and cosmic evolution. Using in

NASA and SpaceX late Monday said they were standing down the launch of the SPHEREx and PUNCH spacecraft missions due to unfavorable weather at the launch site and an issue with one of the spacecrafts.

The spacecraft, SPHEREx and PUNCH, had been expected to launch on a SpaceX rocket on Saturday. Two NASA missions will have to wait longer for a launch aboard a single rocket. Both aim to unravel mysteries about the universe — one by peering far from Earth,

Watch live as NASA launches the SPHEREx telescope and PUNCH mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to explore the universe and the sun. SPHEREx will create a 3D all-sky map of 450 million galaxies, while PUNCH will use small satellites to study the sun’s impact on space weather and Earth’s communications.