IMAP Solar Array Installation and Testing

Technicians at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida remove a protective covering from the two-panel solar array on Friday, July 18, 2025, that will help power the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) observatory on its upcoming journey to a destination about one million miles away from Earth at Lagrange Point 1. Each panel of the solar array, located on the top of IMAP, consists of 16 strings of solar cells, with 36 cells per string, and combined will convert sunlight into 500 watts of power, more than enough for the observatory, which as a system uses less power than five 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.

Technicians at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida remove a protective covering from the two-panel solar array on Friday, July 18, 2025, that will help power the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) observatory on its upcoming journey to a destination about one million miles away from Earth at Lagrange Point 1. Each panel of the solar array, located on the top of IMAP, consists of 16 strings of solar cells, with 36 cells per string, and combined will convert sunlight into 500 watts of power, more than enough for the observatory, which as a system uses less power than five 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.

Photographer NASA/Kim Shiflett
Album SpaceX_IMAP
Location Astrotech
John F Kennedy Space CenterKennedyKennedy Space CenterKSCSpaceportCape CanaveralNASArocket ranchFloridamulti-user spaceportpremier spaceportspace coastcape IMAPInterstellar Mapping and Acceleration ProbespacecraftNASANational Aeronautical and Space AdministrationKSCKennedy Space CenterGSFCGoddard Space Flight CenterLSPLaunch Services ProgramPrinceton UniversityAPLSolar Arrays