Three-space weather satellites launch to study the sun's storms

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A trio of space weather satellites blasted off Wednesday morning from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX rocket, aiming to shed fresh light on solar storms that can disrupt communications and threaten astronauts in flight. The satellites will travel to sun‑orbiting vantage points about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, each on its own mission.

Altogether, the missions are valued at about $1.6 billion, with NASA providing more than $879 million for two of the satellites and NOAA about $693 million for its instrument. NASA’s Joe Westlake called the launch “the ultimate cosmic carpool” to emphasize sharing a rocket to save money. The lead observatory is NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, which will study the outer heliosphere—the protective, solar wind–driven bubble surrounding the solar system. IMAP is also expected to offer roughly a 30‑minute heads‑up for solar storms that could affect Artemis astronauts circling the Moon. Officials say the observatory should be fully deployed and ready to operate by the time four astronauts fly around the Moon and back next year.

NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is the second satellite in the lineup, focusing on Earth’s outermost, glowing atmosphere that extends well beyond the Moon. It’s named after the late George Carruthers, who invented the ultraviolet telescope left on the Moon by the Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972. NOAA’s newest space weather observatory will be pushed into full‑time, around‑the‑clock forecasting service, keeping a watch on the Sun’s activity and measuring the solar wind to help keep Earth safe from threatening flares.

Officials expect NASA’s satellites to be in position and operational by the beginning of next year, with NOAA’s spacecraft slated to come online by spring. NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said the new instruments will offer more sensitive measurements and enable a much clearer view of the Sun when all three are in operation. “Just being able to put all those together to give us a much, much better view of the sun,” she said, “is a big step in understanding the sun and, ultimately, how to protect Earth.”

Although the missions are visually spectacular, officials stressed that auroras are not the primary objective. In the Artemis‑era context, the new space weather assets will enhance forecasting and provide vital alerts if major solar activity strikes. During previews of NASA’s Artemis program, science officials noted that, in a severe event, astronauts aboard lunar spacecraft would have procedures to seek shelter in a storage area built under the capsule’s floor to avoid heightened radiation levels.