Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY), a leading provider of advanced imaging solutions, has announced that sensors from Teledyne Space Imaging will play a crucial role in two upcoming NASA explorer missions set to launch this month. Both missions will lift off aboard the same rocket on February 28th, 2025, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.
PUNCH. Image Credit: NASA, SwRI
The PUNCH mission (Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere) is led by Teledyne Space Imaging customer Southwest Research Institute on behalf of NASA. This small explorer mission consists of four satellites operating in a sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. PUNCH will capture images of the solar corona, extending from the outermost solar atmosphere into the inner heliosphere, using continuous 3D deep-field imaging. The mission aims to enhance our understanding of how coronal structures evolve into solar wind.
Teledyne Space Imaging in Chelmsford, UK, developed the CCD230-82 image sensors for PUNCH, adapting existing designs to meet highly precise specifications. These sensors underwent extensive modeling and testing to ensure their durability in the harsh space environment throughout the mission’s duration.
I have worked on PUNCH since 2018 when we first bid for the project. To see it come to fruition and launch this year alongside SPHEREx is extremely exciting. We have enjoyed a long-standing working relationship with NASA at Teledyne Space Imaging and this dual launch builds on our heritage of previous missions we have carried out with them. We are delighted to be able to extend our knowledge and experience in this exciting area of space and are looking forward to the launch date immensely.
Katherine Lawrie, Product Verification and Test Manager, Teledyne Space Imaging
Sharing the ride aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX is SPHEREx—NASA’s first all-sky infrared spectroscopic survey mission. Teledyne Space Imaging in Camarillo, California, designed, built, and installed six short-wave and mid-wave H2RG focal plane array sensors for the mission. SPHEREx, which stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and over 100 million stars in the Milky Way. The mission aims to deepen our understanding of the origins of the universe.
Teledyne started working on the SPHEREx contract at the end of 2019, delivering the detectors in 2022. We are thrilled to now be ready to see the mission launch at the end of this month. Once it is in place, there will be a total of 133 Teledyne-designed infrared sensors in space, which is a truly impressive feat and one of which we are all very proud.
Meghan Dorn, Astronomy and Earth Observation Market Segment Manager, Teledyne Space Imaging