Overview

• NASA lists liftoff no earlier than 7:32 a.m. EDT on Sept. 23 from Launch Complex 39A with IMAP as the primary payload and Carruthers and SWFO‑L1 ridesharing.
• SWFO‑L1 is NOAA’s first satellite built solely for continuous space‑weather monitoring to support operational alerts.
• From L1 about a million miles from Earth, the mission will track solar wind and coronal mass ejections to extend warning lead times for geomagnetic storms.
• Two Southwest Research Institute instruments, SWiPS and SWFO‑MAG, are integrated to measure solar wind plasma and the interplanetary magnetic field in real time.
• NOAA will operate the observatory from Suitland with data sent to the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, and the rideshare was designed to do no harm to the IMAP primary mission.