NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions, originally scheduled to launch together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, have been delayed.

The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, was postponed to allow more time for rocket checkouts.

SPHEREx, designed to explore the origins of life in the Milky Way by mapping galaxies and searching for life’s key ingredients, will work alongside PUNCH, which will study the sun’s corona and solar wind. CNN has reported.

SPHEREx will scan the sky in infrared light, examining over 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars to investigate cosmic phenomena like inflation and the conditions for life.

Written by B.C. Begley