Overview

• Lift‑off is targeted for no earlier than 7:30 a.m. EDT on September 24 from Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A on a Falcon 9.
• IMAP will use 10 instruments to detect energetic neutral atoms and create high‑resolution maps of the heliosphere’s boundary during a two‑year primary mission.
• NOAA’s SWFO‑L1 marks the agency’s first fully dedicated operational space‑weather observatory, providing continuous measurements and roughly 30 minutes of warning for hazardous events.
• The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will image the ultraviolet glow of Earth’s outer atmosphere to track how it responds to solar storms.
• The trio will cruise for about four months to the L1 orbit roughly one million miles from Earth, returning near‑real‑time data to help protect satellites, GPS, power grids and astronaut safety.