KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – A trio of NASA and NOAA science satellites were launched at sunrise Wednesday, Sept. 24, by SpaceX from the Florida Space Coast to the L1 Lagrange Point to investigate space weather and map the suns influence across our Solar System from a unique vantage point thats located a million miles (1,5 million km) from Earth.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off just past sunrise – affording a stunning view soaring from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:30 a.m. EDT, Sept. 24, carrying NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1) spacecraft.
IMAP as the lead mission is an observatory designed to study space weather and explore and map the boundaries of our solar neighborhood – a region dubbed the heliosphere. IMAP is led by Princeton University Astrophysics
Launching with IMAP were two rideshare missions, NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1), both of which will provide valuable new insight into space weather and its effects on our planet.
Together the trio were stacked and encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 nose cone
Deployments from the upper stage began at 83 min after liftoff with IMAP being first.
Deployments of NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) followed successfully at 90 and 96 minutes after liftoff respectively
Signals from all 3 space weather satellites were obtained and they are preforming satisfactorily and as expected during the journey to L1 – “to confirm they’re active and working well” said NASA.
These missions will help safeguard both our ground-based technology, as well as our human and robotic space explorers from the harsh conditions known of space weather.
“As the United States prepares to send humans back to the Moon and onward to Mars, NASA and NOAA are providing the ultimate interplanetary survival guide to support humanity’s epic journey along the way,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“Our scientific discoveries and technical innovations directly feed into our know-before-you-go roadmap to ensure a prepared, safe, and sustained human presence on other worlds.”
Enjoy our launch and prelaunch photos taken by the Space UpClose team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright covering the launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Press Site and Launch Complex pad 39A
Falcon 9 launched IMAP, Carruthers and Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 into a transfer orbit that will take it to the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange Point – a gravitationally stable region 1 million miles or 1.5 million kilometers from Earth (directly between Earth and the Sun) where the Sun and the Earth’s gravity essentially balance each other out.
IMAP and Carruthers are mostly focused on gathering new basic science measurements of the heliosphere and the Earth exosphere – but will also contribute to space weather predictions.
Whereas the Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 is an operational mission focused on gathering critical data to make space weather predictions.
The lead time for Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 is 2 days before the solar wind and flares and coronal mass ejections reach Earth and then a 20 minute turn around time to feed to data to the vast user community.
This was the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1096.2
It previously supported KF-01.
Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship (JRTI) , stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
More About the Mission Science
Each mission will investigate different effects of space weather and the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of particles emitted by the Sun, from their origins at the Sun all the way outward to interstellar space.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab/Walt Feimer
“These three unique missions will help us get to know our Sun and its effects on Earth better than ever before,” said Joe Westlake, Heliophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters. “This knowledge is critical because the Sun’s activity directly impacts our daily lives, from power grids to GPS. These missions will help us ensure the safety and resilience of our interconnected world.”
The IMAP mission will chart the boundary of the heliosphere, a bubble inflated by the solar wind that shields our solar system from galactic cosmic rays — a key protection that helps make our planet habitable. In addition, the spacecraft will sample and measure solar wind particles streaming outward from the Sun, as well as energetic particles streaming inward from the boundary of our solar system and beyond.
“IMAP will help us better understand how the space environment can harm us and our technologies, and discover the science of our solar neighborhood,” said David McComas, IMAP mission principal investigator at Princeton University in New Jersey.
IMAP is equipped with 10 science instruments:
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman
The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is the first mission dedicated to recording changes in the outermost layer of our atmosphere, the exosphere, which plays an important role in Earth’s response to space weather. By studying the geocorona — the ultraviolet glow given off by the exosphere when sunlight shines on it — the Carruthers mission will reveal how the exosphere responds to solar storms and how it changes with the seasons. The mission builds on the legacy of the first instrument to image the geocorona, which flew to the Moon aboard Apollo 16 and was built and designed by scientist, inventor, engineer, and educator Dr. George Carruthers.
“The Carruthers mission will show us how the exosphere works and will help improve our ability to predict the impacts of solar activity here on Earth,” said Lara Waldrop, the mission’s principal investigator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The first of its kind, NOAA’s SWFO-L1 is designed to be a full-time operational space weather observatory. By keeping a watchful eye on the Sun’s activity and space conditions near Earth 24/7, and without interruption or obstruction, SWFO-L1 will provide quicker and more accurate space weather forecasts than ever before.
“This is the first of a new generation of NOAA space weather observatories dedicated to 24/7 operations, working to avoid gaps in continuity. Real-time observations from SWFO-L1 will give operators the trusted data necessary to issue advance warnings so that decision-makers can take early action to protect vital infrastructure, economic interests, and national security on Earth and in space. It’s about safeguarding society against space weather hazards,” said Richard Ullman, deputy director of the Office of Space Weather Observations at NOAA.
Next steps
In the hours after launch, all three spacecraft successfully deployed from the rocket and sent signals to Earth to confirm they’re active and working well.
Over the next few months, the spacecraft will make their way to their destination — a location between Earth and the Sun, about a million miles from Earth, called Lagrange point 1 (L1). They should arrive by January and, once their instrument checkouts and calibrations are complete, begin their missions to better understand space weather and protect humanity.
David McComas of Princeton University leads the IMAP mission with an international team of 27 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built the spacecraft and will operate the mission.
The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory mission is led by Lara Waldrop from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Mission implementation is led by the Space Sciences Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley, which also designed and built the two ultraviolet imagers. BAE Systems designed and built the Carruthers spacecraft.
The Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the IMAP and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
The SWFO-L1 mission is managed by NOAA and developed with NASA Goddard, and commercial partners. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, manages the launch service for the missions.
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