NASA's newest telescope Pandora will help verify Earth-like signals

Pandora launched from Vandenberg into a polar Sun-synchronous twilight orbit and will observe 20 preselected exoplanet systems to help separate stellar signals from planetary atmospheres and support James Webb Telescope observations.

NASA's small satellite Pandora rocketed into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base and is now in a polar Sun‑synchronous "twilight" orbit. Pandora is designed to observe exoplanets and their host stars at the same time so astronomers can separate changes caused by stars from signals that come from planetary atmospheres. The mission is meant to complement the James Webb Space Telescope, which has the sensitivity to detect atmospheric molecules but has a fully booked schedule. Pandora was developed on a roughly $20 million budget and will spend a one‑year prime mission revisiting 20 preselected exoplanets. Key details: - Launch and orbit: Pandora launched early Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare with about 40 other payloads and deployed at roughly 380 miles (613 kilometers) altitude into a polar Sun‑synchronous "twilight" orbit. - Mission plan: Pandora will observe each of 20 preselected exoplanets about 10 times during its one‑year prime mission, collecting roughly 24 hours of visible and infrared data per visit to capture short‑ and longer‑term stellar behavior. - Scientific goal: The satellite will monitor host‑star variability so astronomers can correct exoplanet spectra for stellar contamination that can mask or mimic molecules such as water vapor and methane. - Hardware and scale: The spacecraft carries a 17‑inch (45‑centimeter) primary mirror, is roughly one‑tenth the linear size of Webb's mirror, and weighed about 716 pounds (325 kilograms) at launch. - Program and budget context: NASA capped Pandora's development budget at about $20 million under the Astrophysics Pioneers program, while the James Webb Space Telescope cost more than $10 billion. - Near‑term operations: Ground controllers will carry out commissioning and calibration over the next few weeks before routine science observations begin. Summary: Pandora will provide contemporaneous measurements of stars and their planets to reduce uncertainties from stellar variability when interpreting exoplanet atmospheres observed by larger telescopes such as Webb. Ground teams will finish commissioning and calibration in the coming weeks, after which the satellite will begin its scheduled visits to the 20 selected systems during its one‑year primary mission. Scientists plan to apply the lessons from Pandora's sample to other targets observed by Webb and by future missions.