WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 launched a “cosmic carpool” of spacecraft for NASA and NOAA Sept. 24 that will study the sun and its role in space weather.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. The launch was scheduled for Sept. 23 but postponed a day because of delays getting the SpaceX droneship to the correct location in the Atlantic Ocean for the booster landing.

About one hour and 24 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 upper stage deployed the primary payload on the launch, NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP. It was followed six and a half minutes later by NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1, or SWFO-L1, spacecraft. The third payload, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, deployed about six minutes after

See Full Page