NASA/Kim Shiflett
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 24, 2025, carrying three missions that will investigate the Sun’s influence across the solar system.
NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), the agency’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) spacecraft will each focus on different effects of the solar wind – the continuous stream of particles emitted by the Sun – and space weather – the changing conditions in space driven by the Sun – from their origins at the Sun to their farthest reaches billions of miles away at the edge of our solar system.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett