BAE Systems-built Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and SWFO-L1 launched

Image courtesy BAE Systems

NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On – L1 (SWFO-L1) launched together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on their way to Lagrange point 1, an orbit approximately one million miles from Earth toward the Sun.

BAE Systems designed and built both spacecraft to provide scientists and forecasters with powerful new instruments. The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will work to increase our understanding of the Sun’s effects on the Earth’s exosphere — the outermost layer of the atmosphere — while SWFO-L1 will observe space weather and its impacts.

“Through the launch of both the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and SWFO-L1 we will enhance our understanding of the Sun, the Earth’s exosphere and how space weather can impact our lives,” said Bonnie Patterson, vice president and general manager of Civil Space for BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems. “We are proud to support the missions of NASA and NOAA and the next generation science programs that these space weather missions will enable.”

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is the first heliophysics mission to study the Sun’s influence on the exosphere during both quiet solar periods and times of intense solar activity. It will help answer questions about our exosphere, such as its shape, size, density and how it responds to large energy spikes created during intense solar storms.

The SWFO-L1 observatory will track coronal mass ejections and measure solar wind. Through the collection and delivery of continuous observations, this mission will provide early warnings of potentially disruptive space weather events to protect infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Both the SWFO-L1 and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory were designed and built using BAE Systems’ heritage Evolve spacecraft platform, which uses a common bus and standard payload interfaces to reduce cost and minimise delivery time.

Each spacecraft successfully completed a thorough design, test, and build phase leveraging commercial best practices, leading to their successful delivery and launch. BAE Systems also trained both flight operations teams and will support mission operations.

Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a collaboration with the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with Dr. Lara Waldrop serving as the mission’s principal investigator, the University of California, Berkeley and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The SWFO-L1 mission is managed by NOAA and developed with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and commercial partners. Both spacecraft launched as rideshares alongside NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission.