NASA, NOAA, and university payloads to launch on Falcon 9
Mark your calendars for September 23, 2025—SpaceX is launching three big science missions from Kennedy Space Center using a Falcon 9 rocket.
The payloads: NASA's IMAP, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory (CGO), and NOAA's SWFO-L1 probe.
If you're curious, you can catch live coverage starting at 6:40am EDT on NASA and Space.com.
IMAP will study solar winds' impact on interstellar space
IMAP will map the edges of our solar system to see how the sun's particles interact with interstellar space—think of it as exploring our cosmic bubble.
CGO will check out Earth's outermost atmosphere, while SWFO-L1 keeps an eye on solar storms to help safeguard Earth's critical infrastructure and technology-dependent industries.
Probes will be stationed at Lagrange Point 1
About 83 minutes after launch, all three probes will head toward Lagrange Point 1—a sweet spot about 1496686km from Earth where spacecraft get a steady view of the sun without Earth getting in the way.
This helps scientists monitor space weather nonstop.