En route to helping scientists solve puzzles about the universe and the sun, five NASA satellites finally took their trek to space Tuesday night aboard a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The rocket built by SpaceX lifted off at 8:10 p.m., with the first-stage booster returning to Vandenberg about eight minutes later, generating sonic booms. While described as somewhat muffled in Montecito, the thunderous booms startled one cat off its owner’s lap in Buellton.

Tuesday’s liftoff came after the mission experienced an assortment of delays blamed on technical troubles, unfavorable weather and scheduling conflicts. 

Those headaches were forgotten by Tuesday night.

“I’m feeling incredibly excited,” said Tim Dunn, NASA’s assistant launch manager. “I just left the building on North Vandenberg, the SpaceX launch and landing center, where there was incredible positive energy after launch.”

“I will say tonight’s launch was amazing. Seeing the separation of all five spacecraft was great,” said Mic Woltman, also with NASA’s Launch Services Program. “This has been an absolute great day to see this launch with everything we’ve gone through for this mission.”

The rocket carried two separate science missions, one dubbed SPHEREx to study the universe and the other called PUNCH to provide details about the sun for NASA.

A space telescope, SPHEREx stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer.

Specifically, the spacecraft will seek signs of key ingredients for life, including water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and more.

“SPHEREx is ready to launch and map the universe in a way that no space telescope has done before,” said James Fanson, SPHEREx program manager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The telescope, built by BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace), must be super chilled — about minus-350 degrees Fahrenheit — to perform its survey, which is expected to span two years.

Unlike other space telescopes such as Hubble and James Webb, SPHEREx will capture wide views, much like a panoramic lens on a cellphone, officials said. The other larger spacecraft explore the universe in closer views.

The second payload, PUNCH — it stands for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere — has four suitcase-size satellites.

They will gather 3-D observations of the sun’s corona or outer atmosphere with an eye toward learning about solar wind or electric particles that move toward Earth. 

Along with creating colorful auroras, solar wind can interrupt power grids and communication systems. It also can put astronauts in danger and damage satellites in orbit, including causing Starlink craft to re-enter the atmosphere much sooner than planned.

“So it’s a real threat that we need to be able to understand and, most importantly, be able to predict or forecast,” said Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “The more we understand about how the sun works, how these events occur, the easier it is in the long term to improve our ability to forecast them.”

Spacecraft separation for SPHEREx and PUNCH occurred less than an hour after launch with cameras showing them drifting away. 

Ground controllers hoped to get a quick check on the satellites’ health and status. 

In the coming weeks, the satellites will undergo further assessment before beginning to collect data, which will be available to the public and potentially lead to other discoveries.

“That’s always been one of the benefits of NASA’s missions. We do these primary science goals, but there’s always additional science that comes from people looking at the data and finding new ways to use it to answer different questions, whether it’s about the sun or astrophysics,” Clampin said.

The SPHEREx program cost, including satellite, launch and operations, is $488 million, while PUNCH has a $155 million price tag, NASA officials said. 

It is one of several for NASA science missions scheduled to launch this year for the civilian space agency from both Vandenberg and Florida.

The next launch on the SpaceX West Coast team’s manifest will be a SpaceX rocket for Transporter-13, a ride-share mission with a collection of satellites for assorted customers.

Transporter-13 includes another NASA payload to explore space weather. Three small satellites make up the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, or EZIE, mission. 

The launch is aiming for this weekend with the final departure date likely to be confirmed now that SPHEREx and PUNCH satellites have been arrived in orbit.