NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory, the first NOAA satellite fully dedicated to continuous, operational space weather observations is now in Florida preparing for its Fall 2025 launch (no earlier than September 23, 2025).
SWFO-L1 arrived at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida in late July. There, it will undergo final testing and preparations in anticipation of its launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. After launch, it will complete a four-month long journey through space to Lagrange point 1, approximately one million miles away from Earth.
Experts from NOAA, NASA, BAE Systems, academia and industry recently previewed the upcoming mission of SWFO-L1, which is NOAA’s first satellite observatory designed specifically for (and fully dedicated to) continuous, operational space weather observations.
Space weather can severely affect our nation’s power grid, communication systems, aviation industry and agricultural sector. SWFO-L1 will monitor solar eruptions and serve as an early warning beacon for hazardous space weather events that could profoundly impact our technology-dependent infrastructure and industries.
In service to its mission, SWFO-L1 will keep a watchful eye on the sun and near-Earth environment for space weather. It will accomplish this by using a special solar telescope to monitor the sun’s activity, in addition to a suite of instruments that will make real-time measurements of the solar wind.
As an operational observatory, SWFO-L1 will deliver real-time data to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), enabling faster and more accurate forecasts, watches, and warnings. This critical information helps protect the nation’s power grid, communication, and navigation systems, and supports the safety of astronauts and space-based infrastructure.
A product of collaboration between government agencies, private industry, and academic institutions, SWFO-L1 began its journey in Boulder, Colorado on Friday, July 18, where BAE Systems assembled the observatory. Weighing over 300 kilograms or 670 pounds, the spacecraft traveled by truck across the United States to reach the Astrotech launch facility.
NOAA and NASA have important and complementary responsibilities in the development, testing, launch, and operation of SWFO-L1. NOAA is the program owner, provides funds and manages the program, operations and data products and dissemination to users. On behalf of NOAA, NASA and commercial partners develop, build, and test the instruments and spacecraft as well as launch the satellites. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is responsible for managing the launch service.
SWFO-L1 will fly as a secondary rideshare on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) and NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, launching no earlier than September 2025. Together, these spacecraft will expand and enhance the field of space weather and how our sun shapes and changes near-Earth space.
SWFO-L1 Quick Facts
Scheduled Launch Date and Location
The SWFO-L1 mission is scheduled for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than September 23, 2025, from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window allows for a second attempt the next day.
SWFO-L1 is a critical operational mission that will launch as a secondary rideshare alongside NASA’s research missions: the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), which is the primary payload, and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory.
Mission
Monitor space weather from the Sun-Earth line at L1 for 24/7 operations to help protect critical infrastructure, the economy, and national security. By detecting solar storms in advance, the observatory will serve as an early warning beacon for potentially disruptive space weather events.
Spacecraft
Bus designed for operational space weather missions by BAE Systems
Launch Vehicle
SpaceX Falcon 9
Primary Instruments
Solar Wind Plasma Sensor (SWiPS), SupraThermal Ion Sensor (STIS), Magnetometer (MAG), and Compact Coronagraph (CCOR)
Orbit
Lagrange Point 1 – approximately one million miles from Earth.
Primary Measurements
Solar wind, thermal plasma, the magnetic field, and detection of coronal mass ejections.
Observational Mitigation. An Urgent Need for Critical Continuity
SWFO-L1 is the first of a next generation of observatories to replace space weather monitoring for operations at Lagrange Point 1. This fills a continuity gap that allows for the decommissioning of aging legacy satellites, that are operating beyond intended design life and with limited remaining resources (e.g. fuel depletion):
- ESA-NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) launched in 1995
- NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) launched in 1997
- NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) launched in 2015
Benefits
The SWFO-L1 observatory is the first NOAA satellite designed specifically for and fully dedicated to continuous, operational space weather observations.
SWFO-L1 will monitor solar eruptions and serve as an early warning beacon for destructive space weather events that could impact our technological dependent infrastructure and industries.
The SWFO-L1 observatory will constantly stream data down to Earth without interruption and obstruction, offering improved performance over older instruments and faster delivery of observations to NOAA ‘s National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).
