BAE Systems delivers NOAA and NASA satellites to Kennedy Space Center for critical space weather missions

BAE Systems has successfully delivered two high-profile satellites—the Space Weather Follow On – L1 (SWFO-L1) for NOAA and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory for NASA—to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The satellites departed from the company’s Boulder, Colorado campus and are scheduled to launch this fall. According to BAE Systems’ official announcement on July 25, 2025, the twin payloads are expected to provide key advancements in monitoring space weather and understanding the Sun’s influence on Earth.

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will work in tandem with the SWFO-L1 observatory to conduct continuous observation of solar activity and its impacts on the Earth’s exosphere and space-based infrastructure. The two spacecraft are set to be launched aboard a shared mission that also includes NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP).

What missions will launch from Kennedy Space Center in fall 2025?

NASA and NOAA’s space weather-focused satellites—SWFO-L1 and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory—will ride together aboard a single launch this fall from Kennedy Space Center. These spacecraft, delivered by BAE Systems, are engineered to study distinct aspects of solar phenomena and their downstream effects on both terrestrial and orbital systems.

NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will examine the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere—known as the exosphere—during varying solar conditions, including periods of calm and intense solar flare activity. This mission is named after Dr. George Carruthers, a pioneering African-American physicist and inventor whose ultraviolet camera/spectrograph flew aboard Apollo 16.

Meanwhile, NOAA’s SWFO-L1 will provide a front-line view of solar eruptions from its station at Lagrange point 1 (L1), a gravitationally stable position roughly 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. From this vantage point, SWFO-L1 will monitor solar wind conditions and detect coronal mass ejections (CMEs), serving as an early warning system for geomagnetic storms that could disrupt GPS, communications, and power grids.

These missions build on the increasing concern among federal agencies and scientific communities about the growing impact of space weather. The combination of real-time monitoring and long-term study is considered vital for safeguarding both space-based assets and Earth’s technological infrastructure.

How are BAE Systems and partner institutions supporting the missions?

BAE Systems is playing a pivotal role in both missions as the primary spacecraft manufacturer and mission support contractor. The company designed and built the satellites using its proprietary Evolve spacecraft platform. This modular platform leverages a common bus architecture and standard payload interfaces, which allows for reduced cost and accelerated development timelines.

In addition to spacecraft delivery, BAE Systems has completed observatory-level testing to ensure mission durability in deep space and will provide ongoing operational support post-launch. The company’s Civil Space division led the effort, with vice president and general manager Bonnie Patterson stating that the delivery marks “a new era of discovery and space weather data that holds exciting promise.”

For the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, NASA is collaborating with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where Dr. Lara Waldrop serves as the mission’s principal investigator. Other partners include the University of California, Berkeley, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which also supports SWFO-L1. NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is the lead agency overseeing SWFO-L1 on the operational side.

This broad coalition underscores the growing trend of academic, commercial, and federal cooperation in space science. It also highlights the U.S. government’s focus on investing in space weather resilience as a national security and infrastructure priority.

What will the SWFO-L1 satellite monitor in space?

NOAA’s SWFO-L1 satellite is designed to serve as an early warning observatory for space weather hazards. Once in orbit at Lagrange point 1, the spacecraft will measure the intensity and velocity of solar wind, as well as track solar eruptions such as CMEs.

The primary objective is to detect these disturbances before they reach Earth, allowing time for mitigation protocols to protect sensitive assets like satellites, communications networks, and terrestrial power systems. By providing continuous, real-time data to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, SWFO-L1 will enhance national capability in responding to solar storms that have previously caused widespread GPS disruptions and transformer failures.

Space weather forecasting has become increasingly critical due to the proliferation of small satellites, growth of commercial space operations, and society’s increasing reliance on GPS and satellite broadband systems. Missions like SWFO-L1 aim to fill the observational gaps left by aging spacecraft such as the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which currently monitors similar parameters.

What is the mission focus of the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory?

NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will focus on understanding how solar radiation affects the Earth’s geocorona—the tenuous halo of hydrogen atoms extending far beyond the atmosphere. This region, despite being almost a vacuum, plays a key role in atmospheric escape and interactions with solar wind.

The observatory will measure emissions from hydrogen and analyze variations in brightness to assess how the exosphere responds to solar changes. These insights will help improve models of atmospheric loss and refine understanding of habitability conditions for Earth-like planets, making the mission relevant not only for Earth sciences but also for comparative planetology.

Carruthers represents a next-generation heliophysics mission aligned with NASA’s long-term Living With a Star program. By correlating changes in the exosphere with solar conditions, the spacecraft could also help identify precursors to geomagnetic disturbances, thereby contributing to early warning frameworks.

How does this launch fit into BAE Systems’ broader space mission portfolio?

The delivery of the SWFO-L1 and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory satellites reinforces BAE Systems’ position as a leading contractor in U.S. space science infrastructure. The company has historically supported numerous flagship missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope, and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

In the Earth observation and weather monitoring segment, BAE Systems has contributed to NOAA-20 and NOAA-21, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), and continues to develop hardware for NOAA’s upcoming Space Weather Next L1 Series.

With the latest delivery, BAE Systems underscores its commitment to agile, cost-efficient platforms that can be quickly adapted to meet NASA and NOAA’s evolving mission requirements. The success of the upcoming launch could also help position the company to secure future contracts under the upcoming decadal space weather strategy frameworks endorsed by the U.S. government.