NASA, SpaceX set to launch IMAP and rideshare payloads to study space weather at L1

Date:
Tue, 23 Sep 2025 22:33:02 +0000

Description:
NASA and SpaceX are set for the launch of the agencys Interstellar Mapping
and Acceleration The post NASA, SpaceX set to launch IMAP and rideshare payloads to study space weather at L1 appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

NASA and SpaceX are set for the launch of the agencys Interstellar Mapping
and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) from Florida on Wednesday morning. Joining IMAP atop a Falcon 9 are two additional rideshare payloads: NOAAs Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) and the joint NASA/University of Illinois Carruthers Geocorona Observatory.

Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 7:30 AM EDT (11:30 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Weather
is 85% favorable for launch during an instantaneous launch window, with the primary concern being the cumulus cloud rule.



Falcon booster B1096 is supporting this mission, flying for the second time after previously launching the KF-01 mission for Amazons Kuiper internet constellation in July. After flying due east out of the Cape, B1096 will reenter Earths atmosphere, perform an entry burn to slow its descent, and finally land atop one of SpaceXs east coast droneships, Just Read the Instructions , which will be stationed downrange in the Atlantic.



Following stage separation, the second stage, IMAP, and the rideshare
payloads will continue flying into an interplanetary transfer orbit. After being deployed from the second stage, IMAP, SWFO-L1, and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will fly to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1), which is located between the Sun and our planet, approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth. See Also IMAP Updates Space Science coverage NSF Store Click here to Join L2

This launch will mark the 121st Falcon 9 mission of 2025, and the 539th overall. Furthermore, this launch will be the 220th orbital launch attempt worldwide in 2025.

IMAP

Selected by NASA for development by a team from Princeton University in 2018, IMAP will serve as the fifth mission under NASAs Solar Terrestrial Probes program. Using a suite of 10 science instruments, IMAP will map and investigate the heliosphere, the vast bubble created by the Suns wind that completely encloses our solar system.

IMAP is expected to answer four critical questions that have plagued heliophysics for decades: what are the properties of the local interstellar medium; how do magnetic fields interact from the Sun through the local interstellar medium; how do the solar wind and interstellar medium interact through the boundaries of our heliosphere; and how are particles accelerated to high energies throughout the solar system? Artists impression of the IMAP spacecraft in orbit. (Credit: NASA/Princeton University/Patrick McPike)

Whats more, IMAP is expected to accomplish four main science goals during its three to five-year mission at L1. First, IMAP will improve our understanding of the composition and properties of the local interstellar medium. Next, the mission will advance scientists understanding of the temporal and spatial evolution of the region where solar wind and the interstellar medium
interact. Third, IMAP will identify and advance the understanding of
processes derived from interactions between the Suns magnetic field and the local interstellar medium. Lastly, IMAP will increase our understanding of particle acceleration processes around the Sun and within the heliosphere.

IMAP is relatively small, massing 900 kg and measuring just 2.4 m in diameter and 0.9 m in height. Despite this small size, IMAPs engineers and scientists implemented 10 scientific instruments on the spacecraft, all of which enable IMAP to view our solar system across different wavelengths and energies.

Three imaging instruments are featured on IMAP. The IMAP-Lo imager is a single-pixel neutral atom imager that will measure and map low-energy, energetic neutral atoms (ENA) created where solar wind and the interstellar medium meet. IMAP-Hi features two single-pixel high-energy imagers that will measure and map medium-energy ENAs located near the edge of the heliosphere. The last of the imagers is IMAP-Ultra, which will map and measure the highest-energy ENAs near the edge of the heliosphere. IMAP during vibration testing ahead of launch. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed
Whitman)

Next is IMAPs magnetometer (MAG), which utilizes two identical triaxial fluxgate magnetometers mounted on a 2.5 m boom arm to measure the interplanetary magnetic field generated by the Sun. The Solar Wind and Pickup Ions (SWAPI) instrument will measure ions within solar wind and particles
that enter the solar system from beyond the heliosphere.

The High-Energy Ion Telescope (HIT) will utilize silicon solid-state
detectors to investigate high-energy ions emitted from the solar wind and
deep space. The Global Solar Wind Structure (GLOWS) instrument, a non-imaging single-pixel photometer, will study the characteristics and evolution of an ultraviolet glow produced by solar wind as it traverses the solar system.

The Solar Wind Electron (SWE) instrument will identify and measure electrons embedded within solar wind and their distributions within the wind. The Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) utilizes two electrostatic analyzers to measure the mass and charge of ions emitted from solar wind and interstellar space.

The 10th and final IMAP instrument is the Interstellar Dust Experiment
(IDEX), which is a high-resolution dust analyzer that will examine the characteristics of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles within the solar system. These characteristics include the elemental compositions, velocities, and mass distributions of the dust particles.



IMAP is powered by solar panels and will communicate with Earth via NASAs
Deep Space Network, which will relay data to IMAPs Mission Operation Center (MOC) at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland. After deployment from Falcon 9, IMAP will travel through interplanetary space for 108 days before arriving at L1. IMAPs unique
position at L1 will allow it to provide scientists with up to 30 minutes of warning before a solar storm impacts Earth.

APL provides project management during the mission, with Dr. David McComas of Princeton University serving as IMAPs principal investigator.

SWFO-L1

One of the rideshare payloads joining IMAP on its journey to L1 is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) SWFO-L1 spacecraft. Much like IMAP, SWFO-L1 will heavily study the Sun and its activity, with SWFO-L1s nonstop data stream providing scientists with ample warning time ahead of large-scale solar storms that may damage Earth and space-based infrastructure.

SWFO-L1 will utilize a compact coronagraph to monitor the Suns activity and inform solar wind measurements. The observatory is the first satellite to be dedicated to continuous, operational space weather observations. After reaching L1, the spacecraft will be renamed to Space Weather Observations at L1 to Advance Readiness 1 (SOLAR-1), with the SOLAR-2 observatory to arrive
at L1 in the coming years. Artists impression of SWFO-L1. (Credit: NOAA)

SWFO-L1 features four instruments to facilitate its continuous observations
of the Sun. The first is the Solar Wind Plasma Sensor (SWiPS), which features two identical electrostatic analyzers that will measure the velocity,
density, and temperature of ions in solar wind. Next is the SupraThermal Ion Sensor (STIS), a solid-state spectrometer that will measure suprathermal ions and electrons across various energy levels.

The magnetometer (MAG) instrument, much like IMAPs MAG, will use two magnetometers to measure the magnetic field generated by solar wind. The last of the four instruments is the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR), which will measure the density structure of the Suns outer atmosphere, the corona.

NOAA will operate SWFO-L1 once it arrives at L1, which is expected to occur several months after launch.

Carruthers Geocorona Observatory

The third and final payload launching on Wednesdays mission is the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, which was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Illinois. As its name suggests, the observatory will investigate the geocorona the luminous portion of Earths exosphere, or its outermost atmospheric layer. Little is known about Earths geocorona, and Carruthers
will be the first mission fully dedicated to studying it. Artists impression of the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory observing Earth. (Credit: NASA)

The geocorona is highly expansive, spanning from approximately 15 to around 100 Earth radii. For context, one Earth radius is approximately 6,357 km,
with the Moon orbiting around 60 Earth radii from Earth.

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory has two primary science goals and objectives: to map the geocoronas response to space weather events, such as coronal mass ejections, and to identify the sources of the geocorona. When charged particles emitted by the Sun travel to Earth, the first atmospheric layer they encounter is the exosphere, which subsequently disturbs the geocorona. Understanding how the geocorona changes in response to
interactions with charged particles will inform scientists about how Earths overall atmosphere reacts to space weather events, as well as what may be causing the geocorona to form.



The observatory will feature two ultraviolet cameras: a wide-field imager (WFI) and a narrow-field imager (NFI), providing a range of observation options for scientists using the observatory. Carruthers will also feature COSSMo, a student-developed instrument that will measure the brightness of
the Sun in ultraviolet and X-rays. With all components assembled, the observatory masses around 241 kg and is approximately the size of a loveseat sofa.

NASA will operate the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory after its launch on a Falcon 9. The observatorys primary mission is expected to last two years.

(Lead image: Falcon 9 stands atop LC-39A with IMAP and its rideshare payloads. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)



The post NASA, SpaceX set to launch IMAP and rideshare payloads to study
space weather at L1 appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/09/imap-launch/


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