NASA’s SunRISE Mission Targets No Earlier Than Mid-2027 Launch
NASA’s SunRISE (Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment) mission will launch no earlier than mid-2027. The heliophysics mission will hitch a ride on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a rideshare with a payload sponsored by the United States Space Force’s Space Systems Command. The mission’s six toaster-oven-size […] The post NASA’s SunRISE Mission…
NASA’s SunRISE mission, consisting of six small satellites, will be launched no earlier than mid-2027. The mission aims to track solar radio bursts, which are generated by energetic particle events potentially hazardous to satellites and astronauts. These bursts are detected before solar energetic particles and reach Earth first.
Positioned slightly above geosynchronous orbit, the six toaster-oven-sized SmallSats will function as a single giant radio dish, tracking the rumbles of radio waves from the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona. This tracking could enhance prediction and mitigation efforts for solar particle events. The SmallSats have undergone assembly and testing at Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, where they will remain until shipped to Florida for launch.
SunRISE is a Mission of Opportunity within NASA’s Heliophysics Division and Explorers Program, with science investigation led by the University of Michigan and project management by JPL, a division of Caltech. The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a rideshare.
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