IMAP Testing and Integration at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) spacecraft arrived May 10, 2025, for processing at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will study how the Sun shapes the boundaries of the heliosphere, the bubble around our solar system.
A semitrailer transported the spacecraft from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, after completing thermal vacuum testing, which simulates the harsh conditions of space, at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility. Astrotech provides the facility and technicians to prepare the spacecraft for launch, including fueling and encapsulation.
The IMAP spacecraft launched Sept. 24, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.
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IMAP Rollout for Launch
Credit: SpaceX
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New Space Weather Missions Move to LC-39A (NASA's IMAP, Carruthers, and NOAA's SWFO-L1)
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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Encapsulation of New Space Weather Missions (NASA's IMAP, Carruthers, and NOAA's SWFO-L1)
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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Technicians integrate NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On Lagrange - 1 (SWFO-L1) satellite to the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter Array Ring (ESPA) inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. The integration of the rideshares prepares for the next milestone of attaching NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) Sun mapping observatory to a payload adapter and stacking all three observatories together to prepare them for encapsulation in the payload fairing.
Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
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NASA's IMAP Media Day Imagery
Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
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Technicians conduct blanket closeout work on NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) observatory at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. IMAP will explore and map the boundaries of the heliosphere — a huge bubble created by the Sun’s wind that encapsulates our entire solar system — and study how the heliosphere interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond.
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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IMAP - Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and Space Weather Follow On - Lagrange 1 Arrival
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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IMAP solar array attachment operations at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida.
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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IMAP; Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe; spacecraft; NASA; National Aeronautical and Space Administration; KSC; Kennedy Space Center; GSFC; Goddard Space Flight Center; LSP; Launch Services Program; SpaceX; Falcon 9; rocket; Princeton University
Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Producer
- Lacey Young (eMITS)
Release date
This page was originally published on Friday, November 21, 2025.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM EST.