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IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe)

First Stage Fueling Begins

Image shows the sunrise in the background with a white spacecraft in the foreground at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch IMAP and its rideshares
Mission managers polled “go” to begin fueling the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster.
NASA

Mission managers polled “go” to begin fueling the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster.

We are now just under 40 minutes from launch, with RP-1, rocket grade kerosene, currently loading into the Falcon 9. The rocket’s first stage is currently being fueled with liquid oxygen, and propellant loading for the second stage will begin shortly.

NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) observatory and its two rideshares, NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) satellite, will launch at 7:30 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.