The IMAP Observatory Overview

Abstract

NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission simultaneously investigates the acceleration of particles expelled from the Sun, and how the interaction of these particles with the local interstellar medium shapes our heliospheric boundary. The IMAP observatory makes critical measurements that facilitate this ground breaking science by incorporating a spin stabilized spacecraft orbiting around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, L1, with a payload comprised of ten unique instruments, making comprehensive and synergistic observations of solar wind, suprathermal, energetic particles and magnetic field, energetic neutral atoms mapping the boundary of our heliosphere, as well as interstellar neutral atoms and dust. This paper provides details on the design, integration, and testing of the IMAP observatory.

Mission Overview

Mission Summary

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), with an international team of 25 partner institutions, uses a suite of 10 instruments to create comprehensive maps of the solar wind’s interaction with the local interstellar medium, including measurements of the interstellar flow and key interstellar relative abundances, heliospheric backscatter glow emitted by interstellar neutral H inside the heliosphere, solar wind, suprathermal ions, pickup ions, high-energy particles, magnetic fields in interplanetary space, and interstellar and solar system dust grains. IMAP’s ten instruments are mounted on a spinning spacecraft that orbits about the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, L1. This orbit is ideal to simultaneously investigate two compelling and intrinsically linked fundamental problems in space physics today, the acceleration of charged particles to high energies, and how the interaction of these high energy particles with the local interstellar medium structures and defines our heliosphere. See McComas et al. (2025) for the overall IMAP mission overview and other papers in this collection for more detailed information about the science and instruments.

Mission Design

To meet IMAP’s orbital requirements at L1, NASA Launch Services Program selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The F9 will put IMAP into a near-escape trajectory towards L1. To meet IMAP’s required spin rate of 4.0 RPM (±0.1 RPM), the second stage spins up to 24 degrees per second prior to separation of IMAP. During coast phase, when not in eclipse, IMAP’s solar arrays are pointed to the sun within 22° of the Sun to ensure that the IDEX (Horányi et al. 2025) and IMAP-Lo (Schwadron et al. 2025) instruments do not have Sun exposure and for thermal management. IMAP’s flight battery provides power during period of eclipse.

Following LV separation, with the breakwires now released, the RF solid state power amplifier (SSPA) is turned on, and earth communication is established as soon as first acquisition by the designated ground station occurs. With IMAP’s conditions needed for the L1 transfer, the team has both the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Deep Space Network (DSN) available for this event.

Approximately 36 hours after launch, a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) is planned to clean up the energy dispersions from the launch vehicle insertion. Several other TCM’s are planned prior to L1 insertion to maintain the track as required. Approximately 107 days after launch, IMAP performs a ∼24 hour burn to insert into its final orbit at L1. By this point in the mission, the Observatory is fully commissioned and prepared to begin science operations. Figure 1 highlights the IMAP trajectory for the mission lifecycle.

Fig. 1.

The nominal IMAP trajectory from launch through end of the Baseline Mission. The first Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) is performed 36 hours after launch. Four additional TCM’s are planned if the trajectory of the Observatory requires them to be performed. 107 days after launch and insertion, the Lissajous Orbit Insertion maneuver is performed. IMAP launched on September 24, 2025

Mission Phases and Nominal Operations

IMAP’s science mission is divided into three phases, the launch phase (lasting 105 minutes), the commissioning phase (∼3.6 months), and prime/nominal science operations (2 years). IMAP carries enough propulsion on-board for at least 3 additional years. During science operations, instruments generally operate in a single continuous mode, with the exception of IMAP-Lo that has daily pivot platform motion, and MAG, which has at least 15 minutes per day of high-rate data (generally much more). Repoints are performed daily to ensure the Observatory is pointing directly into the nominal solar wind direction, and orbit station keeping maneuvers are performed up to every six weeks. Figure 2 illustrates the nominal Concept of Operations (CONOPs) for the operations phase. For more details on mission operations please see Reno et al. (2026).

Fig. 2.

IMAP Operations Architecture Diagram. IMAP has simple, repeatable nominal operations for the Observatory. Spacecraft operations are run from the Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which focuses on spacecraft health, Mission Design (MD), navigation (NAV), maneuver planning and housekeeping and telemetry data archiving. The MOC is also the primary interface to NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) for ground station coverage, which leverages 34 m Beam Waveguide (BWG) antennas. The IMAP instruments are operated from the Science Operations Center (SOC) at LASP (University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics). This includes instrument commanding and instrument data arching. The SOC is also responsible for producing and disseminating science data products back to the IMAP science team. When not in DSN contact, IMAP is broadcasting Active Link for Real Time (I-ALiRT) space weather data to participating ground stations

Flight System Overview

The IMAP flight system (Fig. 3) and is defined of the following elements:

• Spacecraft: the structure, avionics, fight software (FSW), autonomy, propulsion, Radio Frequency (RF), thermal, Attitude Control System (ACS) and the electrical power system (EPS) that support the IMAP science payload

• Payload: Suite of 10 unique instruments (3 with two sensor heads). See McComas et al. (2025) and the individual instrument papers in this collection for more details on the payload

• Observatory: combination of the spacecraft and payload with a total launch mass of 797 kg including propellant.

Fig. 3.

IMAP Observatory. The IMAP Observatory is an open bay structure that hours the spacecraft subsystems, and accommodates 10 science instruments. The top left picture shows the configuration with the solar arrays installed, and the bottom picture shows a view with the entire top deck “removed” to view the various major components, subsystems, and instruments that comprise IMAP. The table included identifies key performance characteristics

Spacecraft Overview

The IMAP Spacecraft was designed, fabricated, and tested by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. The IMAP Spacecraft is composed of the following subsystems: Structure, Attitude Control, Avionics, Flight Software, Autonomy, Harness, Electrical Power, Propulsion, RF Communication and Thermal Control. The system block diagram is included in Fig. 4, followed by more detailed descriptions of each subsystem and its lower level components.

Fig. 4.

IMAP System Block Diagram. Shown here are the major subsystems of the IMAP Spacecraft, including the Avionics, RF, Electrical Power System, Attitude Control System, Propulsion, Mechanical, Thermal, and Harness. Connections to the IMAP Payload are shown as well

Spacecraft Structure

Structure

The IMAP spacecraft structure is composed of six open bays, with a total approximate diameter of 2.44 meters. Key components that make up the mechanical structure are the adapter cone, central cylinder, top and bottom decks, radial panels and instrument accommodation panels and struts. The adapter cone, central cylinder, instrument accommodation panels, and top and bottom decks are fabricated out of 6061-T651 aluminum. The radial panel honeycomb core is 3/16 inch 5056 honeycomb.

Magnetometer Boom

Part of the scope of the mechanical subsystem for the spacecraft was the design, fabrication, and qualification of a 2.5 m deployable magnetometer boom that holds the MAG instrument away from the main structure and the Payload during operations. The magnetometers are located at the tip of the boom away from the spacecraft when deployed. The outboard is at the tip, and the inboard is 0.75M inboard from the outboard magnetometer.

Attitude Control System (ACS)

The ACS (Fig. 5) is responsible for maintaining stability and control of the Observatory throughout all mission phases, starting with launch vehicle separation. It is responsible for maintaining the nominal attitude pointed 3.5°-4.5° away from the sun within the ecliptic plane, toward the heliocentric velocity direction. The ACS uses on-board algorithms to compute thruster pulse phasing and total burn time needed to perform TCMs, daily repoint maneuvers, as well as spin rate adjustments as needed to maintain 4.0 ± 0.1 RPM. The attitude sensors comprise two star trackers and two digital sun sensors. Fluid filled dampers are included to ensure stabilizing energy dissipation to passively damp out system nutation.

Fig. 5.

IMAP ACS Block Diagram. Shown above is the IMAP Attitude Control System. The system is comprised of 2 Star Trackers and 2 Digital Sun Sensors with accompanied electronics, as well as 12 4.4 N thrusters and 2 nutation dampers. The ACS also includes a ground component comprised of its algorithms and truth model that support maneuver planning efforts

Star Trackers

ACS includes two Hydra star trackers manufactured by Sodern as the primary sensors for attitude determination and spin estimation. Two optical heads are mounted on the bottom deck pointing in the anti-Sun direction and canted ±12 degrees from the body spin axis. The optical head imagery is processed using a common electronics box, which provides attitude quaternion estimates to the spacecraft ACS algorithms.

Sun Sensors

ACS leverages two digital sun sensors manufactured by Redwire for Sun direction and spin estimation. The sun sensors include two independent two-axis sensor heads interfaced to the spacecraft through a single electronics box. One sensor head is mounted on the top deck and another is mounted and canted off the bottom deck. Together they provide 4p sr sky coverage over a full spin.

Nutation Dampers

IMAP includes two metallic rings filled with silicone fluid that dissipate excess system energy and thereby damp out system nutation. Propellant tank fuel slosh also provides a source of energy dissipation and nutation damping.

Avionics Subsystem

The avionics subsystem (Fig. 6) is the Observatory flight computer, responsible for providing the command and data handling of the flight system. The design is based heavily on heritage from Parker Solar Probe (Fox et al. 2016).

Fig. 6.

IMAP Avionics Block Diagram. Shown above are the 5 electronics cards slices of the IMAP Integrated Electronics Module, representing the Avionics subsystem. Two SCIF cards split the duties to interface to the instruments of the IMAP Payload, the TAC card interfaces to the propulsion system thrusters. The Single Board Computer houses the Solid State Recorder, and the DC/DC board feeds 5 V power to the other cards

Integrated Electronics Module (IEM)

The Integrated Electronics module is comprised of five electronics boards/slices:

• Single Board Computer (SBC) running Flight Software and incorporating Critical Command Decoder (CCD) and Direct Memory Access (DMA)

• Two (2) Spacecraft Interface Cards (SCIF) to interface the spacecraft instruments and provide a SpaceWire network

• Thruster Actuator Card (TAC) to interface spacecraft thrusters and Remote Interface Units (RIU).

• DC/DC converter to supply secondary voltage to IEM slices and receive analog/digital telemetry from the S/C

The two identical SCIF cards are responsible for distributing commands and receiving telemetry from spacecraft components and instruments. The SBC is responsible for running IMAP’s flight software and ACS algorithms. The SBC also provides the on-board Solid State Recorder and breakwire interfaces. The TAC card is responsible for actuating the 12 spacecraft thrusters, and can do so independently at a resolution of 50 Hz. The DCDC board is responsible for converting power received from the Power Distribution Unit, and serves as the Inrush limiter and EMI filter. The DCDC also provides secondary power (5 V) to the other IEM cards. Telemetry is also read from the Remote Interface Units (RIU), which measure temperatures from around the spacecraft.

Electrical Power Systems

The Electrical Power System (EPS) (Fig. 7) is responsible for all power generation, distribution and management of IMAP, and was designed to be able to provide >= 477 W within the bus voltage range of 29 V–34.5 V. EPS is comprised of the Flight Battery, the Solar Arrays, the Power Distribution Unit (PDU), and the Power System Electronics (PSE).

Fig. 7.

IMAP EPS Block Diagram. Shown above is the overall electrical power architecture for IMAP. The Solar Arrays provide power to the Power System Electronics, which serves as the main power interface for IMAP (including connecting to the battery). The PSE provides the main bus power to the PDU, which is then responsible for distributing power at appropriately specified levels to all Observatory loads

Power System Electronics (PSE)

The Power System Electronics (PSE) is responsible for all power management functions, including solar array power conditioning, battery charge and discharge control, command processing, and telemetry collection. The PSE is not fully redundant and consists of several components implemented in a slice format. The PSE is a peak power tracker or PPT configuration regulated by the battery, the design has high heritage from previous NASA missions Parker Solar Probe (PSP; Fox et al. 2016) and Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) (Adams et al. 2023). The PSE is physically composed of 7 card slices:

• 1 interface controller low voltage power supply (ICL)

• 1 solar array junction board (SAJB)

• 3 buck converters boards (BCB)

• 1 main bus junction board (MBJB)

• 1 battery relay slice (BRS)

Solar Arrays

IMAP’s solar array is composed of two panels, with each panel containing 8 strings of 36 cells each in the array responsible for the power generation throughout the life of the mission. Each panel also contains 5 PRTs for temperature sensing. The solar cell manufacturing, laydown, and back wiring was completed by SolAero, who also completed acceptance testing of both panels. The solar array substrate was manufactured by ACLA. The solar arrays are body mounted in a mirrored configuration, as seen in Fig. 3 (top left), on the upper deck of the Observatory.

Battery

Given that IMAP’s orbit always has its solar array pointed at the sun, the battery’s primary use is intended for the launch phase of the mission, where it is required to output 150 W for approximately 105 minutes. It is a 25Ah battery designed, built, and acceptance tested by ABSL. The battery design has high heritage, it is the same design used for the NASA mission Parker Solar Probe (PSP) except the battery relays are not located inside the battery, instead they are located in the PSE as they were on the DART mission.

Power Distribution Unit (PDU)

The IMAP Power Distribution Unit (PDU) is based on the heritage design from Parker Solar Probe and DART. The single string system provides switched and pulsed services for spacecraft loads, and includes safety bus relays for some spacecraft services, as well as a hardware command loss timer. The PDU also accommodates breakwire separation detection from the launch vehicle. The PDU design consists of four different board designs, and the box itself is composed of 8 slices bolted together and electrically connected using internal rigid-flex connectors for signals. A wiring harness external to the box is used for power connections. There is (1) Command Telemetry (CT) slice, which serves as the PDU’s main interface to the Avionics subsystem. Two (2) Relay/Capacitor (RC) Slices serve as the input for the main power bus into the PDU from the PSE. They also provide unswitched power service to the spacecraft loads. There are four (4) FET Switching Slices, which provide fused, switched and pulsed power services to the spacecraft loads. The HWCLT slice (Hardware Command Loss Timer) provides a watchdog timer for the communication between the Avionics and PDU subsystems.

Propulsion Subsystem

The IMAP propulsion subsystem (Fig. 8) is a blowdown monopropellant hydrazine design using twelve 4.4 N L3Harris MR-111G rocket engine modules (REMs or thrusters). Three NGIS 80659 65.4-liter conospherical titanium tanks are equally-spaced within the center cylinder of the Observatory, outlets towards the outer perimeter, which provides pressurized spin-assisted propellant expulsion for the loaded complement of 143.86 kg of hydrazine including residuals. The subsystem was installed by L3Harris in Redmond, WA on an APL-built primary structure. Eight radial thrusters are mounted in pairs on opposite sides of the Observatory and provide Delta-V perpendicular to the sun direction phased with the spin as well as spin rate control. Four axial thrusters, two pro-Sun and two anti-Sun, provide Delta-V as well as daily repointings. All remaining subsystem components have heritage on previous APL spacecraft, including Tavis pressure transducers and Vacco latch valves, fill/drain valves, and filters.

Fig. 8.

IMAP Propulsion Subsystem Block Diagram. There are 4 total axial thrusters (2 on the top deck and 2 on the bottom deck), and 8 total radial thrusters (4 in Bay E, 4 in Bay B). 3 hydrazine tanks are housed in the main body of the spacecraft

RF Communications Subsystem

The IMAP telecommunications subsystem (Fig. 9) makes use of both heritage designs, and design modifications and is comprised of a Low and Medium Gain Antenna, RF Switch assembly, X-band SSPA, and an X-band Frontier Radio. This system is used by IMAP to communicate within the Near-Earth X-band frequency range.

Fig. 9.

IMAP Radio Frequency Subsystem Block Diagram. The RF subsystems is comprised of a Low and Medium Gain Antenna, an X-band Frontier Radio, and a Solid State Power Amplifier. The Low Gain Antenna is only planned to be used during launch and ascent, with the Medium Gain Antenna planned to be used for all other operations

Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA)

IMAP’s X-Band SSPA provides a minimum of 8 Watts of RF output. It includes two boxes, the RF amplifier and Power Conditioning Unit (PCU), joined by an inter-box harness.

RF Switch Assembly

The RF Switch Assembly is comprised of a diplexer, Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), coaxial transfer switch (CTS), splitter/combiner, and coax cables that connect these components together. The RF Switch assembly allows for RF signal routing between SSPA, Radio receiver, and the Low and Medium Gain Antennas.

Low Gain Antenna

The Low Gain Antenna (LGA) is located on the +Z side of the Observatory and is included to cover communication from the Observatory to the ground antennas for up to the first two hours after separation from the Launch Vehicle, depending on the launch day. The LGA was manufactured using additive manufacturing.

Medium Gain Antenna

The Medium Gain Antenna (MGA) is located on the -Z side of the Observatory. It is a conventional corrugated horn design. The MGA covers RF communications for the entire mission following the first contact of the mission where the LGA is potentially leveraged depending on the launch day.

Frontier Radio

The Frontier Radio that IMAP leverages is a build-to-print of the Emirates Mars Mission radio, which is also the Parker Solar Probe radio, with the exception of having the Ka-band exciter slice removed. The radio is comprised of 4 PWA slices:

• Power Converter

• Digital Signal Processor (DSP)

• X-band receiver

• X-band exciter

Thermal Control Subsystem

The IMAP thermal control system maintains Observatory temperature throughout the mission using a combination of multilayer insulation (MLI) and thermostatically controlled heaters along with heat generated by the internal electronics. The thermal environment created by solar illumination of the top deck mli and solar arrays (SA) is balanced with the electrical heat dissipations to maintain spacecraft component and instrument interface temperatures in the proper ranges. As shown in the block diagram in Fig. 10, this is accomplished by either thermally isolating or thermally coupling the various hardware to the spacecraft structure. To allow for controlled and deterministic bus structure heat leak, the surface of the bottom deck of the spacecraft is painted black to radiate excess heat through designated radiator cut-outs in the bottom deck MLI.

Fig. 10.

IMAP Thermal Design. Given the open bay structure of the spacecraft, MLI is used to close out the spacecraft panels and provide thermal accommodations to the components in the spacecraft bays. The above figure shows which components of IMAP are coupled vs isolated from the spacecraft structure

Payload Overview

The IMAP Science Payload is composed 10 unique instruments used to comprehensively study the solar wind, pickup ions, suprathermal and energetic particles, and energetic neutral atoms, the interstellar flow and neutral atoms within the heliosphere (see McComas et al. 2025):

Solar Wind:

• Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE, Livi et al. 2026)

• Solar Wind and Pickup Ion (SWAPI, Rankin et al. 2025)

• Solar Wind Electrons (SWE, Skoug et al. 2026)

• High-energy Ion Telescope (HIT, Christian et al. 2026)

Energetic Neutral Atoms and Interstellar Neutral Atoms:

• IMAP-Lo (Schwadron et al. 2025)

• IMAP-Hi 45 & 90 (Funsten et al. 2026)

• IMAP-Ultra 45 & 90 (Gkioulidou et al. 2026)

Magnetic field, interstellar and solar system grains, and heliospheric backscatter glow emitted by interstellar neutral H inside the heliosphere::

• MAG (x2; Horbury et al. 2026)

• IMAP Dust Experiment (IDEX; Horányi et al. 2025)

• GLObal solar Wind Structure (GLOWS; Bzowski et al. 2025)

The block diagram for the IMAP payload suite is shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 11.

IMAP Payload Block Diagram. The IMAP Payload is comprised of 10 Instruments (IMAP-Ultra, IMAP-Hi, IMAP-Lo, CoDICE, HIT, SWE, SWAPI, IDEX, GLOWS, and a Magenetometer. Primary power to all instruments in provided from the Spacecraft. The above figure illustrates which of the Instruments have both high and low voltage systems for acquiring science data measurements. IMAP-Ultra and IMAP-Hi each have two instruments on board, with one pointed at 90 degrees relative to the +X axis, and one pointed 45 degrees. IMAP-Lo is unique in that it has a dedicated pivot platform for taking measurements at different angles

Integration and Test

Payload

Integration of the instruments made significant use of the partnerships showcased on IMAP. While integration was owned by all of the Instrument institutions for their work prior to delivery to the spacecraft, many instruments made use of IMAP partner facilities and resources to successfully mitigate risks prior to delivery.

For several of the instruments, their integration scope included cross-calibration prior to flight. These were:

• CoDICE and SWAPI

• CoDICE and HIT

• IMAP-Hi and IMAP-Lo

• IMAP-Hi and IMAP-Ultra

System Integration and Testing (I&T)

System I&T began when the spacecraft structure with propulsion subsystem installed was shipped back to APL from the propulsion vendor, Aerojet Rocketdyne. Upon arrival, the thermal hardware and main wiring harness were each installed and tested on the spacecraft. Following this, each of the spacecraft subsystem components were mechanically and electrically integrated with the rest of the system, starting with the core bus consisting of the PDU, IEM, and Radio.

Once all spacecraft components were integrated, an initial set of system tests was performed, including phasing testing, RF compatibility testing, fault management testing, mission operations testing, and timekeeping testing. After this preliminary testing, each of the instruments was integrated into the spacecraft and checked out, followed by additional system testing including the baseline Comprehensive Performance Test (CPT) and Mission Simulation #2.

Following this testing, the solar arrays and magnetometer boom were installed, and then baseline Mass Properties and Magnetic Characterization Testing was performed before beginning preparations for environmental testing

Environmental Test Campaign

EMI/EMC Testing

The majority of the EMI/EMC testing was conducted at the subsystem and instrument box levels to ensure compliance with the EMC requirements. Full spacecraft testing for IMAP consisted of Radiated Emissions testing to verify launch vehicle compatibility, followed by Radiated Susceptibility Testing to verify launch vehicle and Eastern Range compatibility, and Plugs Out Testing to verify spacecraft operation with no GSE cables or grounds connected. All tests were performed in the cleanroom highbay rather than in a shielded tent. Self-Compatibility Testing was completed separately during TVAC testing when the spacecraft was in an operational configuration.

Magnetic Characterization Testing

Magnetic Characterization testing was performed to demonstrate compliance with magnetic cleanliness requirements to meet the MAG and SWE instrument measurement sensitivities. The Magnetic Characterization testing was performed in the cleanroom highbays at APL in November 2024 and at Astrotech in August 2025 with the fully integrated spacecraft. The test consisted of measuring the magnetic signature of the spacecraft along a linear translation at multiple distances along the mag boom (stowed during the test) and the SWE aperture vectors. The requirement at the outboard sensor location was 20 nT, and the test results showed less than 10 nT at that location.

Dynamics Testing

Acoustic Testing was performed in the reverberant chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), while Vibration Testing was performed on the vibration table at APL. Separation-Shock Testing was performed with SpaceX present following vibration testing. The spacecraft was powered and in the launch configuration for all tests.

Thermal Vacuum Testing

The IMAP Observatory Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) test was originally baselined to be done in the GSFC SES 290. However, due to conflicts with the chamber availability (Roman Space Telescope), the Marshall Space Flight Center X-Ray Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) was selected as the site for the IMAP TVAC test given the chamber availability, size, and the ability to meet the test and facility requirements regarding spacecraft GSE accommodation, cleanliness and contamination control, mechanical handling, networking, and chamber thermal control. The XRCF is a horizontal tube type vacuum chamber that is twenty feet in diameter, sixty feet long and can reach high-vacuum levels below $1\times {10}^{-7}$ torr. As shown in Fig. 12, the Observatory Level Thermal Vacuum test configuration was very simple and well defined making the XRCF the best option to maintain the launch schedule and complete all required testing. Testing started on 29 March 2025 and completed successfully slightly ahead of schedule on 27 April 2025.

Fig. 12.

IMAP Observatory at the NASA MSFC XRCF. The top figure is a CAD model of IMAP on the rails that allow entry into the XRCF chamber. The lower figure is a picture of the IMAP Observatory in its final test instrumentation state prior to closure of the XRCF chamber door to begin TVAC

The TVAC test consisted of a Thermal Balance section and a Thermal Cycling section. Thermal Balance was used to verify the thermal design of the spacecraft by dwelling at several hot and cold cases. Thermal Cycling consisted of moving the spacecraft through four hot and cold plateaus, while completed a variety of system testing including CPTs, Mission Simulations, RF Compatibility Testing, and Timekeeping Testing. Instruments were operated through the TVAC test campaign, however they did not operate at high voltage to avoid discharge issues.

Launch Site Operations

Launch site operations were performed at Astrotech Space Operations (ASO) and NASA Kennedy Spaceflight Center (KSC). Operations consisted of post-ship checkouts, final installation of the flight solar arrays, closeouts, final alignment measurements, deployments, instrument ranges of motions, final mass properties, and integrated operations to mate to the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Pictures of the launch stack, and the Encapsulated Assembly on the Falcon 9, and the launch of IMAP are included below in Figs. 13 and 14.

Fig. 13.

IMAP, and its two rideshare payloads, SWFO-L1 and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, on the LV Payload Adapter and ESPA port just prior to fairing encapsulation at Astrotech Space Operations

Fig. 14.

(Top) The Falcon 9, vertical at the 39A Launch Complex at Kennedy Space Center. (Bottom) Lift off of IMAP from Launch Complex 39A on September 24, 2025

Conclusion

IMAP’s Observatory, and the critical subsystems and instruments described above that comprise the Observatory, is poised to return a level of detail of the heliosphere never prior seen. The IMAP team is excited for the transition of IMAP into science and operations, and looks forward to the future science returns and discoveries to come!

Declarations

Competing Interests

The authors have no conflicts to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.