Satellites come in all shapes and sizes, but there aren't any that look quite like SPHEREx, an infrared observatory NASA launched Tuesday night in search of answers to simmering questions about how the Universe, and ultimately life, came to be.

There was a glimmer in the air tonight at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and it wasn't only because a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took to the skies carrying precious NASA cargo. As the agency's SPHEREx space telescope and PUNCH solar mission rode toward their orbital stations tonight (March 11) at 11:10 p.