SpaceX Falcon 9 Liftoff: IMAP, SWFO-L1, & Carruthers Missions | NASA Kennedy

SpaceX Falcon 9 Liftoff: IMAP, SWFO-L1, & Carruthers Missions | NASA Kennedy

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched and deployed NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), the agency’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) spacecraft. Launch took place on schedule at 7:30 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The missions will each focus on different effects of the solar wind—the continuous stream of particles emitted by the Sun—and space weather—the changing conditions in space driven by the Sun—from their origins at the Sun to their farthest reaches billions of miles away at the edge of our solar system. 

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) will explore and map the heliosphere—the invisible cosmic shield surrounding our solar system—to answer great unknowns about how particles accelerate in the solar wind.

Learn more about IMAP: 
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/imap/ 
https://imap.princeton.edu/

NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a small satellite that will observe Earth’s outermost atmospheric layer, the exosphere. It will image the faint glow of ultraviolet light from this region, called the geocorona, to better understand how space weather impacts our planet. The Carruthers mission continues the legacy of the Apollo era, expanding on measurements first taken during Apollo 16.

The SWFO-L1 spacecraft will monitor space weather and detect solar storms in advance, serving as an early warning beacon for potentially disruptive space weather, helping safeguard Earth’s critical infrastructure and technological-dependent industries. The SWFO-L1 spacecraft is the first NOAA observatory designed specifically for and fully dedicated to continuous, operational space weather observations.

Video Credit: SpaceX

Duration: 26 seconds
Date: Sept. 24, 2025

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