Tense, public squabbles between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and NASA have stirred the space industry, but behind the scenes, space science has continued business as (almost) normal.

NASA’s newest space telescope, called SPHEREx, finally got off the ground this week, after a series of delays that had stalled its launch since late February. From low-Earth orbit, it will gather data on millions of stars and galaxies—and search for the ingredients of life.

NASA's newest space telescope has blasted off to map the entire sky like never before. NASA’s newest space telescope rocketed toward orbit Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before — a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time.

The SPHEREx telescope will create the most colorful map of the cosmos, while the four satellites of the PUNCH mission track the evolution of the solar wind in three dimensions.

As the agency's SPHEREx space telescope and PUNCH solar mission rode toward their orbital stations tonight (March 11) at 11:10 p.m. EST (0310 March 12 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.

NASA launched a new space telescope to explore the origins of the universe. The SPHEREx mission, which stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe,

A semi-frontal view of the SPHEREx observatory is seen during integration and testing at BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, U.S., in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on February 24, 2025. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY (Reuters) - A NASA telescope was launched into space from California on Tuesday for a mission to explore the origins of the universe and to scour the Milky Way galaxy for hidden reservoirs of water,