Objectives and Applications
The eight satellites of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform, or IMP, series were designed to study the boundary between Earth’s magnetic environment and interplanetary space, along with the radiation – both from the sun and from outside the solar system – that passes between the two. The IMP satellites provided measurements of solar wind and cosmic ray parameters, including everything from energetic particle flux to magnetic field measurements to plasma parameters. The consistent IMP observations were the baseline for tracking the solar cycle, deep-space studies, and understanding Earth’s magnetic environment.
Full Name
International Monitoring Platform 8
Mission Status
Cancelled
Mission Agencies
Launch Date
26 Oct 1973
Mission Links
EOL Date
07 Oct 2006
Orbit Type
Highly elliptical
Orbit Period
Orbit Sense
Orbit Inclination
Orbit Altitude
Orbit Longitude
NORAD Catalog #
International Designator