[4][5] SPHEREx is scheduled to launch on 27 February 2025 on a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket alongside the PUNCH microsatellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

It will employ a single instrument with a single observing mode and no moving parts to map the entire sky (in 96 different color bands, far exceeding the color resolution of previous all-sky maps[4]) four times during its nominal 25-month mission; the crucial technology is a linear variable filter,[6] as demonstrated by LEISA on New Horizons.

[9][6] The triple mirror telescope will have an aperture diameter of 20 centimeters with a 3.5° x 11° field of view and six 2k x 2k mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) photodetector arrays.

[7] The SPHEREx spacecraft and telescope will be provided by Ball Aerospace & Technologies while the payload is being developed by Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

[12][13][14] The SPHEREx proposal was submitted to NASA on 19 December 2014, and it was selected for further conceptual development (Phase A) on 30 July 2015 for the Small Explorer program (SMEX).