{"id":252064,"date":"2025-09-24T21:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T21:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/252064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T21:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T21:53:11","slug":"in-battle-against-space-weather-spacex-launches-3-satellites-headed-1-million-miles-away-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/252064\/","title":{"rendered":"In battle against space weather, SpaceX launches 3 satellites headed 1 million miles away \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER \u2014 SpaceX launched three satellites early Wednesday on a million-mile trip to tackle the mysteries of space weather, including how to protect from the sun\u2019s disruptive and dangerous solar flares.<\/p>\n

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from KSC\u2019s Launch Pad 39-A at 7:30 a.m. carrying NASA\u2019s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) with two rideshare satellites \u2014 NASA\u2019s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Follow On\u2013Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) satellite.<\/p>\n

The first-stage booster made its second flight to space with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

All three satellites were deployed less than two hours after liftoff.<\/p>\n

IMAP was the primary payload, with a scientific main objective to map the heliosphere but a secondary role to help detect potentially dangerous coronal mass ejections, more commonly known as solar flares. The NOAA\u2019s SWFO-L1, though, is designed with solar flare detection and tracking as its main purpose.<\/p>\n

The NOAA spacecraft will offer the U.S. for the first time 24\/7 eyes on the sun and act as a warning system for geomagnetic storms from the ejections that have the potential to disrupt technology such as cell phone service, as well as damage the planet\u2019s energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n

A steady stream of that information is paramount to protect both earthbound interests, but also for astronauts and hardware in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the United States prepares to send humans back to the moon and onward to Mars with the Artemis program, NASA science is actively providing the ultimate interplanetary survival guide to help support humanity\u2019s epic journey along the way,\u201d said Nicky Fox, NASA\u2019s associate administrator for its Science Mission Directorate during a mission briefing Sunday.<\/p>\n

She explained how data from IMAP along with SWFO-L1 will be able to inform NASA\u2019s human and robotic missions to avoid the dangers of solar flares. She cited a record-breaking one that the sun spat out in 1972 in between the Apollo 16 and 17 missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe astronauts narrowly missed catastrophe when one of the most powerful radiation storms recorded since the Carrington event of 1859 occurred,\u201d she said about the coronal mass ejection in August of 1972. \u201cHad the astronauts been in orbit, or, in fact, on the moon\u2019s surface, they could have experienced dangerous levels of high radiation sparked by the historically enormous solar flares bursting from the sun at unprecedented speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same flare, which made the 93 million mile trip from the sun in a record 15 hours instead of the normal 2-3 days, wreaked havoc on Earth as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States experienced radio blackouts, significant power grid disturbances, satellite damage, and those as far south as Texas saw spectacular aurora,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also caused magnetic disturbances, which triggered the accidental detonation of U.S. naval sea mines from the Vietnam War.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Liftoff! pic.twitter.com\/elXj2RIhF2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 24, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All three satellites will be stationed in what\u2019s known as a Lagrange point. Earth has five such points it shares with the sun as both bodies\u2019 gravitational pulls allow for satellites to remain relatively stable, requiring less fuel to maintain their position in space. Lagrange Point 1 is in between the sun and Earth while Lagrange Point 2 is on the opposite side of Earth. LP2 is home to the James Webb Space Telescope, for instance.<\/p>\n

The two NASA satellites will take about 108 days before they arrive to the L1 point and begin operations. The NOAA satellite will take a little longer, with operations targeting a start in April 2026.<\/p>\n

The goals of all three satellites on this mission are to help better understand the effects of the sun on the solar system, including how far solar particles travel.<\/p>\n

IMAP\u2019s primary science mission is to study the sun\u2019s particles and energy\u2019s interaction throughout the heliosphere, which is the space affected by our star. Beyond the heliosphere is interstellar space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a celestial cartographer,\u201d said NASA\u2019s Michele Cash, an IMAP deputy program scientist. \u201cSo it is trying to map out the heliosphere, this protective bubble that surrounds our solar system and can protect us from some of that incoming solar radiation. We want to understand what that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said understanding how solar particles work farther away from Earth will be essential as human space exploration continues to expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when we have missions that go beyond Earth\u2019s protective bubble \u2026 they do experience much more severe space weather,\u201d she said. \u201cSo energetic particles, this is the hazardous radiation that can come both from the sun, but from interstellar space as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will turn its attention to Earth, looking at its exosphere and how space weather hits the planet. It will image the ultraviolet light known as the geocorona, expanding on measurements first taken during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Its placement at L1 will allow for a view it cannot get from somewhere like geostationary orbit.<\/p>\n