NASA's Pandora Launched on SpaceX Rideshare Mission

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Pandora small satellite, the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS), Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope (BlackCAT) CubeSat, and several other payloads stands vertical on the pad at Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, as part of the company’s Twilight mission. 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. Launch of SpaceX’s Twilight mission is scheduled for 5:44 a.m. PST Jan. 11, from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4 East.