.jpg) A BAE systems technician inspecting the fully assembled Carruthers Geocorona Observatory | |
| Mission type | Space telescope |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 2025-215C |
| SATCATno. | 65727 |
| Website | https://science.nasa.gov/mission/carruthers-geocorona-observatory/ |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 24 September 2025, 11:30UTC |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 |
| Launch site | Kennedy,LC-39A |
| Contractor | SpaceX |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | L1 |
 NASA insignia forCarruthers | |
TheCarruthers Geocorona Observatory, previously called Global Lyman-alpha Imagers of the Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE), is aNASA mission led by theUniversity of Illinois, which will surveyultraviolet light emitted by Earth's outermost atmospheric layer, theexosphere, andgeocorona.[1][2]
The mission name was given to honourGeorge R. Carruthers, a pioneer American space physicist, engineer, and inventor. He is widely recognised for his groundbreaking contributions toultraviolet astronomy. His most famous invention was theFar Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph,[3] a compact but powerful telescope that was placed by the astronauts ofApollo 16 on the Moon in 1972.[4]
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Carruthers Geocorona Observatory was launched as a secondary payload on theSpaceXFalcon 9launch vehicle carryingNASA'sInterstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft, together withNOAA'sSWFO-L1, on 24 September 2025.[5][6][7]
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