Three New Missions Launch to Track Space Weather

We're about to launch three new observatories that will study the Sun—and help us protect Earth. Come watch with us!

NASA's IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA's Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory are scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1132 UTC) on Wednesday, Sept. 24.

The IMAP mission will map the boundaries of our heliosphere, the vast bubble created by the Sun’s wind that covers our entire solar system. NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will study the ultraviolet glow of Earth’s exosphere, the outermost region of our planet’s atmosphere — helping scientists understand how space weather from the Sun affects our planet.

The SWFO-L1 mission, managed by NOAA and developed with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and commercial partners, will use a suite of instruments to provide real-time measurements of solar wind, along with a compact coronagraph to detect coronal mass ejections from the Sun.