NASA’s SunRISE mission is targeting launch no earlier than mid-2027, the agency has confirmed. The mission will study how the Sun creates dangerous space weather.

Six small satellites, each about the size of a toaster oven, will fly above geostationary orbit. They will work together as a single giant radio telescope.

Their target is radio bursts from the Sun’s corona. These bursts are linked to solar particle events that can endanger astronauts and damage satellites.

The satellites were built and tested at Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory. The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with science led by the University of Michigan.

SunRISE will hitch a ride on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Better forecasts of solar storms could protect both crews and the growing fleet of satellites in orbit.

Solar storms can knock out power grids and disrupt GPS signals on Earth. In 1859, the Carrington Event set telegraph wires on fire; a similar storm today would be far costlier.

SunRISE joins a fleet of heliophysics missions watching the Sun. Together they aim to give forecasters the tools to predict space weather like earthly weather.