Solar Orbiter Launched to Study Our Star

By Bob Granath

Mission: Solar Orbiter

Launched: 11:03 p.m. EST, Feb. 9, 2020 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Importance: The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA launched Solar Orbiter to gain a better understanding of the Sun’s effects on Earth. Additionally, plans are progressing for sending astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit as part of NASA’s Artemis Program. This effort is designed to put the first woman and the next man on the surface of the Moon and then land explorers on Mars. Understanding the effects the Sun has on Artemis crews will be crucial.

Following the liftoff, ESA’s Director of Science, Günther Hasinger, noted that humans have always been familiar with the importance of the Sun to life on Earth, observing it and investigating how it works.

“But, we have also long known it has the potential to disrupt everyday life should we be in the firing line of a powerful solar storm,” he said. “By the end of our Solar Orbiter mission, we will know more about the hidden force responsible for the Sun’s changing behavior and its influence on our home planet than ever before.”

Launch Vehicle: The United Launch Alliance Atlas V is 189 feet-tall with 1.3 million pounds of thrust at liftoff fueled by RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen.

Upper Stage: The Centaur upper stage is 41.6 feet long with 22,300 pounds of thrust fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Spacecraft: Solar Orbiter weighs 420 pounds, measures 8 feet, 2 inches by 9 feet 10 inches.

Payload: Airbus Defense and Space in Ottobrunn, Germany, developed the Solar Orbiter spacecraft for an international cooperative mission between the ESA and NASA.

Solar Orbiter’s Mission: After a three-year trip, plans call for Solar Orbiter to enter an elliptical orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will come as close to 26 million miles from our star every five months. At closest approach, Solar Orbiter’s heat shield will be exposed to heat nearing 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Solar Orbiter will observe the Sun with high spatial resolution telescopes and capture observations in the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft to create a one-of-a-kind picture of how the Sun can affect the space environment throughout the solar system.

Solar Orbiter’s primary focus will be the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind. It also will measure the inner heliosphere, the extensive, bubble-like region surrounding the Sun. The spacecraft will provide the first ever images of the Sun’s poles. It also will measure the never-before-observed magnetic environment, which helps drive the star’s 11-year solar cycle and its periodic outpouring of solar storms.

Solar Orbiter Timeline

• The Solar Orbiter spacecraft arrived at the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch and Landing Facility on Nov. 1, 2019 and was transported to the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville for pre-flight processing.

• The United Launch Alliance Atlas V reached Port Canaveral on Nov. 21, 2019 and was moved to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

• After per-flight procession, the Atlas V rocket was transported from the ASOC and lifted at Vertical Integration Facility, near Space Launch Complex 41, at the Cape on Jan. 6, 2020.

• Encapsulated in its payload faring, Solar Orbiter arrived at the Vertical Integration Facility and was mated atop the Atlas V rocket on Jan. 31, 2020.

• On Feb. 8, 2020, the Atlas V rocket, topped with the Solar Orbiter encapsulated in its payload faring, rolled from the Vertical Integration Facility to Space Launch Complex 41.

Solar Orbiter on its Way to the Sun

This illustration depicts Solar Orbiter, an international collaborative mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. The spacecraft will observe the Sun with high spatial resolution telescopes and capture observations in the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft to create a one-of-a-kind picture of how the Sun can affect the space environment throughout the solar system. The spacecraft also will provide the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles and the never-before-observed magnetic environment there, which helps drive the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and its periodic outpouring of solar storms. Photo credit: ESA/ATG Medialab

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