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Rocket launch today: Early Wednesday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched three spacecraft into space on behalf of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as per a report.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch: Three Missions in One Rocket

The liftoff was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Eastern time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with coverage beginning at 6:40 a.m., as per The New York Times report. Forecasts give an 85% chance of favorable weather.

On board are NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1), as per the report. Together, they will help scientists study the heliosphere, a magnetic bubble around the solar system, and provide early warnings of solar storms that can disrupt satellites and even power grids on Earth, as per The New York Times report.

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Why NASA and NOAA Shared the Falcon 9 Ride

IMAP is the primary payload, but it didn’t require all the available room on the rocket. Since SWFO-L1 was also headed to the Sun-Earth Lagrange 1 point, it was added to the mission, according to the report. As space was still remaining, so NASA opened the door for a smaller mission, and that slot went to the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, as per The New York Times.

Joe Westlake, director of the heliophysics division at NASA, said that, “Having them fly together as one provides such an immense value for our American taxpayer,” as quoted in the report.

According to the report, IMAP’s total cost is $782 million, including $109 million for the launch. Carruthers will cost $97 million, while SWFO-L1 will cost $692 million.

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IMAP Mission: Mapping the Solar Wind and Heliosphere

IMAP carries ten instruments to measure the solar wind and probe the heliosphere. Scientists see this bubble as Earth’s shield against harmful cosmic rays. David McComas, a professor of astrophysics at Princeton University and IMAP’s principal investigator, described the mission as key to understanding how the heliosphere works and changes over time, as per The New York Times report.

IMAP will also detect neutral hydrogen atoms that form when solar wind protons capture electrons at the edge of the heliosphere, a rare but measurable event, as per the report. It will additionally track neutral particles entering the solar system from beyond, as per The New York Times report.

SWFO-L1: NOAA’s Space Weather Early Warning System

SWFO-L1 will provide NOAA with updated data on solar storms. It succeeds older spacecraft, NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (1997) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (1995), and carries modern versions of their instruments. It follows in the role of the Deep Space Climate Observatory, launched in 2015, which serves as an early warning system, as per The New York Times report.

What Is the Geocorona?

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, first known as GLIDE, will study Earth’s exosphere, the thin outer layer of atmosphere extending halfway to the moon. Its work builds on the legacy of George Carruthers, a NASA scientist who designed the ultraviolet camera used during Apollo 16 in 1972, as per The New York Times report. That camera revealed the faint ultraviolet glow of hydrogen atoms, known as the geocorona, around Earth, as per the report.

NASA renamed the mission after Carruthers in 2022, two years after his death, as per the report.

Why Lagrange 1 Is the Ideal Destination for the Spacecraft

All three spacecraft are heading for the Lagrange 1 point, a location about a million miles away where the sun’s and Earth’s gravity balance, as per The New York Times report. This vantage point allows for stable observations of the sun, solar wind, and Earth’s outer atmosphere, as per the report.

FAQs

What time did the SpaceX rocket launch?
The Falcon 9 launched at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, as per The New York Times report.

Where did the launch take place?
The liftoff happened at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as per The New York Times report.