IMAP Mission
9/24/2025
Under the SWFO-L1 contract, Ball Aerospace will design and manufacture the satellite bus, integrate government-furnished instruments, perform testing, help train the flight operations team, check out the satellite in orbit, and support mission operations.
SWFO-L1 will deliver real-time data to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.
The microchip used in SWFO-L1 has been successfully used on NASA's four MMS satellites and the South Korean weather satellite GEO-KOMPSAT-2A.
The satellites launched include NASA's IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA's SWFO-L1.
Melbourne, Florida-based L3Harris will develop, deploy, and operate a command and control system for NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 observatory.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center awarded Ball Aerospace the contract to design and build the SWFO-L1 spacecraft on 2020-06-25, on behalf of NOAA.
SWFO-L1 is scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket on September 23, 2025, at 13:32 CEST from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.