![]() ![]() ![]() The mission will provide complementary datasets to NASA's Parker Solar Probe that will allow more science to be distilled from the two missions than either could achieve on their own. 8) due to rescheduling of the wet dress rehearsal earlier this week,' ESAs Solar Orbiter team. The prime contractor is Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, UK. 'NASA, ESA, and ULA confirm the Solar Orbiter launch date adjusted to 23:15 EST Feb. Solar Orbiter is an ESA mission with strong NASA participation. Its complementary suite of instruments means it will be able to study the plasma environment locally around the spacecraft and collect data from the Sun from afar, connecting the dots between the Sun's activity and the space environment in the inner Solar System, which is essential to understand the effects of space weather at Earth. Once in space, and over the course of several years, the spacecraft will repeatedly use the gravity of Venus and Earth to raise its orbit above the poles of the Sun, providing new perspectives on our star, including the first images of the Sun's polar regions. Updated Tuesday, Decemat 3:59PM ID: 4653 Visualizations by: Tom Bridgman View full credits This visualization opens near Earth for the launch of Parker Solar Probe August 12, 2018. In the final stages of preparation, the spacecraft will be mounted atop the Atlas V 411 rocket and moved to the launch pad ready for liftoff. In the new year attention will shift to mating the spacecraft with the launch adapter and encapsulating the spacecraft inside the fairing. This image shows the transport container before Solar Orbiter was unpacked at the Astrotech facility. This will include repeated simplified tests of the spacecraft and science instruments so that the functioning of the various systems is confirmed as it was before the long flight, and checking of the propellant pressurisation system pressure before eventually fuelling the spacecraft. The first weeks were dedicated to setting up the equipment that will be needed to perform the upcoming checks and tests on the spacecraft. From there the satellite and equipment travelled by road to the AstroTech Space Operations facility. time (early morning 6 February central European time) on an unprecedented mission to study our star up-close.Īn Antonov cargo plane transported the spacecraft and essential ground support equipment from Munich, Germany, to Florida, landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Centre on 1 November. ![]() The mission is currently scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral launch complex late in the evening of 5 February U.S. ESA's mission to the Sun has been unpacked following its arrival in Florida earlier this month, ready to begin pre-launch testing and checks. From its launch on 9 February 2020 until November 2021, Solar Orbiter has been in cruise phase, allowing the instruments to be tested and calibrated while. ![]()
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