NASA’s Pandora satellite set to search for alien life

NASA is gearing up to launch the Pandora Mission on January 5, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The compact satellite, developed with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is designed to probe distant exoplanets for signs of life by analyzing their atmospheric composition. This $20 million mission focuses on detecting water vapor and other biosignatures across 20 known worlds.

At the core of Pandora is CODA, a 45-centimeter all-aluminum telescope offering innovative, cost-effective observations in both visible and near-infrared light. By separating planetary signals from the bright light of host stars, scientists hope to confirm the presence of water—a critical ingredient for life as we know it. Each of the 20 target planets will be observed 10 times during planetary transits, enabling continuous 24-hour monitoring sessions.

Pandora arrives amid growing excitement over exoplanet discoveries, including potential biosignatures found on K2-18b in 2025. Its observations will pave the way for future missions, like NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory, while rideshare payloads from Spire Global and Kepler Communications join the launch. The mission operations center at the University of Arizona will process all incoming data.