Space Showdown: 48 Hours of Epic Launches, Cosmic Breakthroughs, and a New Moonship Name
Solar sentinel liftoff: The week’s biggest blast-off came early on Sept. 24, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared off Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center carrying a trio of spacecraft devoted to space weather research nasa.gov. In a single launch at 7:30 a.m. EDT, NASA and NOAA deployed the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On L1 satellite toward the Sun-Earth Lagrange point nasa.gov nasaspaceflight.com. This “fleet” will probe how the Sun’s charged particles and solar wind affect Earth and the broader solar system. “This successful launch advances the space weather readiness of our nation to better protect our satellites, interplanetary missions, and space-faring astronauts from the dangers of space weather,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy nasa.gov. The new missions will provide early warning of solar storms and help safeguard power grids, communications, GPS, and astronauts by monitoring the Sun’s outbursts nasa.gov nasa.gov. NASA’s heliophysics chief Joe Westlake noted that understanding the Sun’s influence is “critical because the Sun’s activity directly impacts our daily lives… from power grids to GPS” nasa.gov. With the Sun approaching a peak in its 11-year cycle, these probes promise timely insights to protect technology and
