IMAP Pre-Launch Press Briefing

Brad Williams, IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) program executive, NASA Headquarters, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for IMAP mission. NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. This mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth. Launch is targeting 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

Brad Williams, IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) program executive, NASA Headquarters, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for IMAP mission. NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. This mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth. Launch is targeting 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

Photographer NASA/Cory S Huston
Album SpaceX_IMAP
IMAP Pre-Launch Press BriefingIMAP