A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch a trio of important Sun-focused science missions for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shortly after sunrise on Wednesday.
The primary payload is NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), which is flying alongside the agency’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1). Liftoff is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Forecasters with the 45th Weather Squadron predict a 90 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch, noting only a low risk of coastal showers causing a delay.
The mission will be carried by a relatively new Falcon 9 first-stage booster, B1096, on its second flight. Over eight minutes after liftoff, SpaceX will attempt to land the booster on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions.
Deployment of the three spacecraft is set to begin about an hour and 23 minutes into the flight, with each craft separating approximately seven minutes apart. NASA anticipates acquiring a signal from IMAP at around 9:03 a.m. EDT, with a signal from Carruthers expected about 30 minutes later.
Each of the three missions will study different aspects of the Sun and its influence, from its immediate effects on Earth to its role in deep space.
“As humanity expands and explores beyond the Earth, these upcoming missions add these new pieces to the puzzle of our space weather,” said Joseph Westlake, Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division. “This research will support a resilient society that thrives while living with our closest star.”
IMAP, equipped with 10 science instruments, will map the heliosphere—the boundary that protects our solar system from galactic radiation. David McComas, the mission’s principal investigator, explained that the heliosphere is a region of the Sun’s influence defined by its outwardly flowing solar wind. IMAP will study this boundary to better predict both short-term and long-term space weather.
Providing actionable space weather forecasts is the primary role of NOAA’s SWFO-L1 spacecraft. It is designed to provide warnings of coronal mass ejections anywhere from 12 hours to several days before they reach Earth, with a more precise 15- to 45-minute alert once the event’s strength is confirmed.
“Unlike the other satellites… which are science missions… we are a science application mission,” said Richard Ullman, NOAA Space Weather Operations Director. “We are looking at the same phenomena for the application of being prepared for the space weather that’s going to impact us.”
While IMAP and SWFO-L1 look toward the Sun, NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will be aimed back at Earth. From its distant orbit, it will capture a full picture of the geocorona, the outermost layer of our planet’s atmosphere. By continuously imaging this region, researchers can better understand how it is affected by solar wind and other space weather events.
The observatory is named after Dr. George Carruthers, who designed the far-ultraviolet camera that flew to the Moon on the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. In a fitting tribute, the current mission is led by Lara Waldrop, a researcher from Carruthers’ alma mater, the University of Illinois. “He designed the first ultraviolet imaging system. It’s still on the moon,” Waldrop said. “And here we are about to launch cameras that use his technology.”
