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Pandora mission to explore distant exoplanets in search of life
NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are preparing for the upcoming launch of the Pandora Mission, a compact satellite designed to study distant exoplanets for potential signs of life by analyzing their atmospheric compositions. Scheduled to lift off on January 5, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the mission marks a new phase in astrophysical research under NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program, which promotes small-scale but high-impact scientific missions.
With a budget of around $20 million, Pandora aims to examine the atmospheres of at least 20 well-known exoplanets, focusing on detecting water vapor and other molecular indicators that could hint at habitability. The spacecraft features an advanced 45-centimeter aluminum telescope known as CODA, jointly built by Lawrence Livermore and Corning Specialty Materials. Unlike traditional glass-based telescopes, this design offers greater efficiency, reduced weight, and lower production costs, making it ideal for compact space missions. The instrument will capture visible and near-infrared light simultaneously, allowing scientists to separate stellar features such as sunspots from genuine atmospheric signals originating from orbiting planets.
One of Pandora’s main scientific goals is to overcome a persistent limitation in exoplanet research: distinguishing signals from the host star that often obscure those from the planet’s atmosphere. By performing continuous 24-hour observations during planetary transits, the mission will collect detailed data that can help confirm the presence of water and other key compounds. Each of the 20 target exoplanets will be observed approximately ten times during the mission’s first year in orbit.
The mission was conceived following a wave of new findings in planetary science, including the James Webb Space Telescope’s 2025 detection of potential biosignatures on exoplanet K2-18b. Those discoveries, which included traces of dimethyl sulfide a molecule produced primarily by living organisms on Earth renewed scientific interest in advanced atmospheric characterization. Pandora’s contribution will be to expand the breadth of exoplanet observations, building a foundation for NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory.
Final preparations for Pandora are underway in Colorado, where Blue Canyon Technologies is conducting spacecraft assembly and testing. Once in orbit, mission operations will be coordinated from the University of Arizona, where researchers will process the incoming data and distribute it to international teams. The Falcon 9 launch will also carry additional small satellites from Spire Global and Kepler Communications as part of a rideshare initiative intended to optimize launch capacity.
By combining technological innovation with targeted scientific goals, the Pandora Mission represents a critical step forward in humanity’s search for evidence of life beyond Earth and enhances our understanding of planetary systems across the galaxy.
