NASA's IMAP Mission (Trailer)

NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, is a new mission that will map the boundaries of our heliosphere — a giant protective bubble created by the Sun that encapsulates our solar system. The spacecraft will study the Sun’s activity and how the heliosphere boundary interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond.

The heliosphere protects the solar system from dangerous high-energy particles called galactic cosmic rays. Mapping the heliosphere’s boundaries helps scientists understand our home in space and how it came to be habitable.

IMAP is launching no earlier than Sept. 23, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Learn more about the IMAP mission.