{"id":9761,"date":"2025-08-30T01:27:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-noaa-prep-spacecraft-trio-to-study-the-sun-and-its-impacts\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T01:27:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:27:41","slug":"nasa-noaa-prep-spacecraft-trio-to-study-the-sun-and-its-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-noaa-prep-spacecraft-trio-to-study-the-sun-and-its-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA, NOAA prep spacecraft trio to study the Sun and its impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A group of technicians works to complete final inspections and checkouts of NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft inside a cleanroom at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Technicians inside a pair of clean rooms at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida, are busily readying a trio of spacecraft that will study the Sun and its effects on Earth and across the solar system.<\/p>\n

The primary mission among the trio is NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), which will use a suite of 10 instruments to study the Sun\u2019s sphere of influence, referred to as the heliosphere. It\u2019s joined by the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, another NASA mission, and the Space Weather Follow-On \u2013 Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).<\/p>\n

The trio will ride atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to begin a months-long trip to a celestial parking spot known as Lagrange 1, roughly a million miles from Earth en route to the Sun. All three spacecraft are fueled for launch, which is scheduled for no earlier than Sep. 23.<\/p>\n

Joseph Westlake, Director of NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate\u2019s Heliophysics Division, said recent events like the total solar eclipse in 2024, widespread auroras, and marquee missions, like Parker Solar Probe, have really put a spotlight on studying the Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can think about the solar wind, the space weather as it\u2019s coming towards the Earth and the measurements that IMAP is going to make of those particles as they go forward,\u201d Westlake said. \u201cAnd then, if you think of the Sun as really blowing up this big bubble of the heliosphere, IMAP is going to deliver a unique understanding of our home in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, as all of that comes together, along with the multitude of other missions that we\u2019ve launched, even just this year, it is a wonderful time to be a heliophysicist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joseph Westlake, Director of NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate\u2019s Heliophysics Division, describes the benefits of the agency\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft and how it works as a part of NASA\u2019s greater heliophysics mission. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David McComas said even though IMAP is the third NASA mission for which he\u2019s serving as the principal investigator, the final prelaunch campaign is still a bevy of mixed emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling great and I\u2019m also feeling terrified because this is that time when everything comes together and if there\u2019s any issue that pops up at the last minute, or any concern, you know, it can set back the launch and that can be very expensive and sort of divert the whole team,\u201d McComas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs all of it comes together, the impact of anything happening gets worse, so you\u2019re kind of afraid of that. But at the same moment, you\u2019re really just incredibly excited because you know the morning of the 23rd, right at sunrise, we\u2019re going to be launching and it\u2019s going to be the most spectacular thing for all of us who spent 10 years or more working on this mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

IMAP is truly a global effort with input from 35 states and from six partner countries. More than half of its 12 instruments will study short-term and long-term space weather.<\/p>\n

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David McComas, Principal Investigator of NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), shares his excitement for the mission that has been in the works since 2017. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inside one of the Astrotech clean rooms, Rosanna Smith, the instrument integration and test lead for IMAP, adorned in a protective garment referred to as a \u201cbunny suit,\u201d said bringing together the science instruments from teams around the world was both \u201cvery smooth\u201d and also a thrill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with the instrument teams was actually awesome because there\u2019s ten institutions, [ten] instruments all around the world,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe traveled, actually, to their reviews. We followed them throughout their process and then when they came to us, we integrated them onto the spacecraft, each one, and it was very, very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amber Dubill, the deputy lead mechanical engineer for IMAP, said that teams were doing their final checkouts of the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty close to done. We\u2019re doing final inspections and then we\u2019ll roll over to mate with our ride shares on the launch vehicle,\u201d Dublil said.<\/p>\n

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Amber Dubill, the deputy lead mechanical engineer for NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), discusses the work being doing on the spacecraft in the final weeks leading up to the mission launch with Spaceflight Now Reporter Will Robinson-Smith. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Similarly to IMAP, NOAA\u2019s SWFO-L1 observatory will also be studying space weather. It helps augment the agency\u2019s role in keeping the public and property safe from all types of weather events.<\/p>\n

Richard Ullman, NOAA Space Weather Observations Director, said one of the key differences between his agency\u2019s spacecraft and IMAP and Carruthers is that SWFO-L1 is designed as a science application mission, not a research science mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at the same phenomena for the application of being prepared for the space weather that\u2019s going to impact us,\u201d Ullman said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that these, IMAP and Carruthers, will improve our knowledge and make us able to make better forecasts. But what we\u2019re doing here is the operational forecast, the day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ullman said SWFO-L1 will be capable of sending back solar weather data in less than five minutes and can send alerts of coronal mass ejections about 15 to 30 minutes prior to them impacting the Earth. He said that kind of early warning system can help different industries, like utility companies and airlines prepare for the interference from strong solar weather.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the trio of spacecraft is Carruthers, named for Dr. George Carruthers, an astronautical engineer and astronomer who developed and built an ultraviolet electronographic telescope that was flown to the Moon during Apollo 16. It was designed to help study Earth\u2019s outermost atmospheric layer: the exosphere or geocorona.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis geocorona, the edge of our atmosphere that extends to at least halfway to the Moon. We don\u2019t even know its shape or size,\u201d said Kelly Korreck, Carruthers Program Scientist. \u201cSo, it\u2019s really meaningful to have this mission named after him because he\u2019s the one who pioneered this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the other two missions, Carruthers will also study space weather, specifically, it\u2019s interplay with this exosphere, and how well it can dissipate the energy from solar storms. Korreck said it can also provide insight into some key differences between Earth and Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that on Mars, water was lost through its exosphere and now it\u2019s kind of a barren desert. No water,\u201d Korreck said. \u201cHow does that change? What\u2019s the difference of our atmosphere versus Mars? And then, what does that say for life on other planets outside our solar system?\u201d<\/p>\n

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NASA\u2019s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory (left) and NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Follow-On \u2013 Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory (right) are seen inside a clean room at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida on Aug. 28, 2025. They will launch as rideshare payloads alongside NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of technicians works to complete final inspections and checkouts of NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft inside a cleanroom at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now Technicians inside a pair of clean rooms at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida, are busily readying a trio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[973,479,974,190,975,316,976],"class_list":["post-9761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-carruthers-geocorona-observatory","tag-falcon-9","tag-imap","tag-nasa","tag-noaa","tag-spacex","tag-swfo-l1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}