![Carruthers Geocorona Observatory](https://scitechdaily.com/images/Carruthers-Geocorona-Observatory-777x466.jpg)
The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, featuring an integrated UV spectrometer, is set to launch in 2025 and will be stationed at Lagrange Point 1 to study the Earth’s exosphere. This groundbreaking SmallSat mission aims to analyze how the outermost layer of the atmosphere reacts to solar-induced space weather. Credit: NASA
The Carruthers Observatory, launching in 2025, will explore the Earth’s exosphere from a stable point one million miles away, providing unprecedented continuous observations.
The ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer was successfully integrated into the satellite bus of the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory.
![Carruthers Geocorona Observatory Satellite Ultraviolet Spectrometer Integration](https://scitechdaily.com/images/Carruthers-Geocorona-Observatory-Satellite-Ultraviolet-Spectrometer-Integration-777x518.jpg)
BAE Systems successfully completes the integration of the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory’s ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer onto the satellite bus, the next major step in completing the NASA Earth-monitoring satellite. Credit: NASA/BAE Systems
Carruthers is a small satellite (SmallSat) and once in orbit at Lagrange Point 1 (L1), the observatory will use an advanced UV imager to observe the exosphere — the outermost part of the atmosphere — to determine how it changes in response to space weather caused by the Sun. Carruthers is expected to be the first SmallSat to operate at L1, a gravitationally stable orbit point between the Earth and Sun about one million miles away, and it will be the first satellite to provide continuous observations of the Earth’s exosphere.
![Carruthers Geocorona Observatory Satellite Inspection](https://scitechdaily.com/images/Carruthers-Geocorona-Observatory-Satellite-Inspection-777x518.jpg)
BAE Systems technician inspects the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory satellite after integration of the ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer onto the satellite bus. Credit: NASA/BAE Systems
The mission was previously called the Global Lyman-alpha Imager of the Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE), but it was renamed in 2020 in honor of Dr. George R. Carruthers, the renowned scientist responsible for designing and building the moon-based telescope that took the first images of the Earth’s geocorona from space as part of the Apollo 16 mission.
Carruthers is currently scheduled to launch in 2025 as a rideshare component of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission.
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