NASA is gearing up for a landmark late-September launch featuring three pivotal spacecraft: the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On (SWFO-L1). The missions are being prepared at Astrotech Space Operations, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary in Titusville that has become one of the nation’s premier spacecraft processing hubs.

Astrotech regularly integrates spacecraft for NASA, the Department of Defense, and commercial providers, and recently hosted media for a rare look inside its cleanroom facilities.

Under the leadership of Principal Investigator David McComas, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, and built by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, IMAP continues the legacy of NASA’s 2008 IBEX mission.