IMAP Rideshare Processing - SWFO

Technicians rotate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) Observatory vertically and use a crane to lift it from its transport container on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, following the arrival and unboxing of the observatory at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SWFO-L1 mission will monitor the Sun and near-Earth environment using a suite of instruments that provide real-time measurements of solar activity. The observatory will launch as a rideshare with NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) no earlier than September 2025.