IMAP will act like a weather station in space, studying the solar wind – streams of charged particles that constantly blow out from the Sun – mapping the shape of the magnetic bubble that surrounds our Solar System.

IMAP successfully lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on 24 September at 12:30pm BST. The spacecraft will spend around 3-4 months in transit before reaching its final orbit around the Sun about one million miles from Earth. There it will study how solar wind, and cosmic particles interact with the heliosphere – a vast region that shields our planet and neighbouring worlds from harmful cosmic radiation.

At the heart of the UK’s contribution is the MAG instrument, a highly sensitive magnetometer developed by Imperial College London with £4.2 million funding

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