Carruthers Geocorona Observatory

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Carruthers Geocorona Observatory
A BAE systems technician inspecting the fully assembled Carruthers Geocorona Observatory
Mission typeSpace telescope
OperatorNASA
Websitehttps://science.nasa.gov/mission/carruthers-geocorona-observatory/
Start of mission
Launch date24 September 24 2025, 11:30 UTC
RocketFalcon 9 Block 5
Launch siteKennedy, LC-39A
ContractorSpaceX
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit
RegimeL1

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, previously called Global Lyman-alpha Imagers of the Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE), is a NASA mission led by the University of Illinois, which will survey ultraviolet light emitted by Earth's outermost atmospheric layer, the exosphere, and geocorona.[1][2]

Name

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The mission name was given to honour George R. Carruthers, a pioneer American space physicist, engineer, and inventor. He is widely recognised for his groundbreaking contributions to ultraviolet astronomy. His most famous invention was the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph,[3] a compact but powerful telescope that was placed by the astronauts of Apollo 16 on the Moon in 1972.[4]

Launch

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NOAA's SWFO-L1, along with NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory fully integrated for launch

Carruthers Geocorona Observatory was launched as a secondary payload on the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle carrying NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft, together with NOAA's SWFO-L1, on 24 September 2025.[5][6][7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "GLIDE (Carruthers Geocorona Observatory)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
  2. ^ "NASA Selects Heliophysics Missions of Opportunity for Space Science Research and Technology Demonstration". NASA. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
  3. ^ "Looking Back: Dr. George Carruthers and Apollo 16 Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph". NASA. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
  4. ^ "BAE Systems completes integration of NASA's Carruthers Observatory". BAE Systems. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
  5. ^ Clark, Stephen (24 September 2025). "A "cosmic carpool" is traveling to a distant space weather observation post". Ars Technica. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  6. ^ "NASA Selects Proposals to Further Study the Fundamental Nature of Space" (Press release). NASA. 13 August 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ^ "NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for IMAP Mission" (Press release). NASA. 25 September 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2020. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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