IMAP
IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) — a NASA observatory at the Sun–Earth L1 point, launched on 24 September 2025 and in its L1 orbit since 10 January 2026. It maps the edge of the heliosphere, where the solar wind meets the gas between the stars, and studies how particles near the Sun are accelerated to high energies.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA
- Launched
- September 24, 2025
- Status
- Active
Trajectory
- Speed rel. Earth
- 228 m/s
- Computed from the cached state vector, relative to Earth
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.986 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 2,016,900 km
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.266 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
IMAP — the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe — is the fifth mission of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes programme. It was launched on a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center on 24 September 2025, sharing the rocket with NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA's SWFO-L1. After a four-month cruise it entered its orbit around the Sun–Earth L1 point on 10 January 2026, and began its science mission on 1 February. Spinning four times a minute, it scans the sky with ten instruments. Some sample the solar wind and the particles the Sun accelerates to high energies; others catch neutral atoms that fly in from the boundary of the heliosphere, far beyond Pluto, where the solar wind meets the gas between the stars — and map that boundary across the whole sky.
- 2025IMAP launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketLaunch
With NASA's Carruthers and NOAA's SWFO-L1.
- 2026In its L1 orbitArrival
Around the Sun–Earth L1 point, 1.5 million km from Earth.
- 2026Science beginsMilestone
Mapping the edge of the heliosphere.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image