Liftoff of Pandora - NASA’s Newest Planet-Observing Satellite
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Pandora small satellite lifted off at 5:44 a.m. PST Sunday, Jan. 11, from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base located on California’s central coast.
In addition to Pandora, the rocket carried dozens of satellites, including two CubeSats sponsored by NASA, SPARCS (Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat) and BlackCAT (Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope).
All of the mission’s data will be publicly available. Data will be archived at NASA's Exoplanet Archive at Caltech/IPAC-NExScI.
- Date: January 12th, 2026
- Category: Project News
- View Image
- Image Caption: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Pandora small satellite, Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS), and Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope (BlackCat) CubeSat lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. Pandora will provide an in-depth study of at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars to determine the composition of their atmospheres — especially the presence of hazes, clouds, and water. Image credit: SpaceX.
