SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Trio of Sun-Studying Missions for NASA and NOAA

The rideshare mission’s primary payload is NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), accompanied by the agency’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) satellite. Together, the spacecraft will study the Sun’s influence on Earth and space, providing critical data for both science and real-time weather forecasting.

The Falcon 9 flew with first stage booster B1096, making its second mission after supporting an Amazon Project Kuiper launch in July. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the booster successfully landed on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions, marking the 137th recovery on that vessel and the 510th Falcon 9 booster landing overall.

The satellites began deploying about one hour and 23 minutes after launch, with each separated by roughly seven minutes. NASA expects first contact with IMAP about 10 minutes after its release, followed by Carruthers approximately 30 minutes later.

NASA’s IMAP, equipped with ten instruments, will map the boundary of the heliosphere — the bubble created by the solar wind that shields the solar system from interstellar radiation. Researchers hope the data will improve understanding of how solar particles travel and interact, providing insights for future missions, including Artemis 2, scheduled to launch no earlier than February 2025.

“The heliosphere is the Sun’s regional influence, separating solar matter from that of other stars,” explained David McComas, IMAP’s principal investigator. “IMAP lets us capture the full life cycle of particles traveling from the Sun, interacting with space, and returning as energetic neutral atoms.”

NOAA’s SWFO-L1 is designed to deliver operational space weather forecasts, monitoring solar storms and providing advance warnings of coronal mass ejections. Depending on their strength, SWFO-L1 could give anywhere from 12 hours to several days’ notice, with real-time updates narrowing down warnings to as little as 15–45 minutes before impact.

“Unlike NASA’s science missions, we are an application mission,” said Richard Ullman, NOAA’s Space Weather Operations Director. “Our job is to take these observations and turn them into actionable daily forecasts.”

NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, meanwhile, will turn its instruments toward Earth, imaging the geocorona — the outermost layer of the atmosphere. Using continuous ultraviolet imaging, it will measure how solar wind and space weather affect Earth’s protective boundary.

The spacecraft is named for Dr. George Carruthers, who developed the ultraviolet camera used on Apollo 16 in 1972. The mission is led by Dr. Lara Waldrop of the University of Illinois, marking the university’s first NASA mission. “It’s incredible to continue Carruthers’ legacy with a mission that builds on the technology he pioneered,” Waldrop said.

NASA officials emphasized the importance of the missions to both scientific research and everyday technology on Earth. “As humanity expands and explores beyond Earth, these missions add new pieces to the puzzle of our space weather,” said Joseph Westlake, Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division.

By Azhar