Solar Orbiter

Mission Profile

Prime Contractors

Companies that built, launched, or operate this mission. Tickers link to their investor profile.

• AIR.PAAirbus Defence & Space
• United Launch Alliance
• LDO.MILeonardo
• Thales Alenia Space

Overview

Solar Orbiter is ESA's flagship heliophysics mission, developed in close partnership with NASA, designed to take the first close-up images of the Sun's polar regions and to study the relationship between the Sun and the heliosphere. Launched in February 2020 on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral, the 1,800-kg spacecraft uses repeated Venus gravity assists to progressively tilt its orbital plane out of the ecliptic, eventually reaching a heliographic latitude of more than 30° — angles never previously imaged in detail. Solar Orbiter's perihelion of approximately 0.28 AU (42 million km) is closer than Mercury, requiring a sophisticated heat shield with apertures that selectively open for each of its ten instruments. Six of those instruments are remote-sensing, including the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) that produces high-resolution magnetograms, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), which captured iconic 'campfire' structures in the corona during its first close approach in 2022. The other four are in-situ, measuring the local solar wind, energetic particles, and magnetic field. Solar Orbiter and NASA's Parker Solar Probe are designed to operate together in a joint heliophysics campaign — Parker samples solar wind close to its source, while Solar Orbiter images that source from a slightly farther vantage and tracks the wind's evolution outward.

Key Milestones

1. 2020-02-10

   Launch on Atlas V from Cape Canaveral

2. 2020-06-15

   First perihelion at 0.51 AU

3. 2022-03-26

   First close perihelion at 0.32 AU; 'campfires' confirmed

4. 2025-02-18

   First high-latitude imaging (~17° heliographic)

5. 2027-02-01

   Reaches >30° heliographic latitude (planned)

Related Missions

Sources

1. ESA — Solar Orbiter
2. NASA — Solar Orbiter Collaboration