# DSCOVR

*Spacecraft*

Sits between the Earth and the Sun measuring the solar wind before it arrives, which is where the warnings of a geomagnetic storm come from - about fifteen to sixty minutes of notice for the power grids and the satellite operators. From the same place its camera photographs the whole sunlit face of the Earth several times a day.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Agency | NOAA/NASA |
| Launched | 2015-02-11 - still working |
| From the Sun | 149,231,588 km (-38,099 km/d) |
| From the Earth | 1,589,437 km (+1,452 km/d) |
| A signal takes | 5 s |
| Travelling at | 29.3 km/s |

Distances and speed are computed from JPL Horizons trajectories and are true of 2026-09-05, changing at the rate given beside each. The interpolation itself is good to a few kilometres; what ages these figures is the date, not the arithmetic.

## Path

A drifting loop about L1, the balance point 1.5 million km sunward of the Earth. It does not close on itself and it slides off, so it is nudged back every few months.

## Along the way

- 2015-06-08 — Arrived at L1
- 2015-07-06 — First photograph of the whole sunlit Earth from here

## Elsewhere

- On the live map: https://www.orbitalmap.space/?world=solar-system&focus=dscovr
- The mission's own page: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/dscovr
- This object as a page: https://www.orbitalmap.space/o/dscovr/
- Every object: https://www.orbitalmap.space/o/
- What this site is and what it reads: https://www.orbitalmap.space/llms.txt