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Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter will address big questions in Solar System science to help us understand how our star creates and controls the giant bubble of plasma that surrounds the whole Solar System and influences the planets within it. It is an ESA mission with strong NASA participation.

Solar Orbiter

Overview

Destination: Heliocentric N/A
Mission: Heliophysics

Heliocentric N/A Space Launch Complex 41 Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA Probability: 90% #SolO

Solar Orbiter is a joint ESA/NASA mission dedicated to solar and heliospheric physics. It will be used to examine how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere, the vast bubble of charged particles blown by the solar wind into the interstellar medium. The spacecraft will combine in situ and remote sensing observations to gain new information about the solar wind, the heliospheric magnetic field, solar energetic particles, transient interplanetary disturbances and the Sun's magnetic field. Instruments include: * Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) * Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) * Magnetometer (MAG) * Radio and Plasma Wave analyser (RPW) * Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) * Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) * Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) * Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) * Coronagraph (Metis) While mission is not intended to get as close to the Sun as Parker Solar Probe, it's designed to coordinate observations and has different set of instruments. Main mission starts after one and only Earth flyby in November 2021, and lasts until Dec 2026 when it enters extended phase. During the mission, Solar Orbiter will get through numerous Venus gravity assists, and its trajectory will be highly inclined allowing direct observations of Sun's poles.

Atlas V 411

Family:
Configuration: 411

Atlas V with 4m fairing, 1 SRB, 1 Centaur upper stage engine.

See Details
Specifications
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    58.3 m
  • Diameter
    3.8 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
  • Thrust
Family
  • Name
    Atlas V 411
  • Family
  • Variant
    411
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Atlas V 411
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $115000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    8080.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    5950.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
    1935.0 kg
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance

(ULA)

CEO: Tory Bruno Founded: 2006 Successes: 166 Failures: 0 Pending: 43

Agency Type:

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. ULA launches from both coasts of the US. They launch their Atlas V vehicle from LC-41 in Cape Canaveral and LC-3E at Vandeberg. Their Delta IV launches from LC-37 at Cape Canaveral and LC-6 at Vandenberg.

INFO WIKI

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Solar Orbiter’s widest high-res view of the Sun

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Watch wind whirl from the Sun

Aside from sunlight, the Sun sends out a gusty stream of particles called the solar wind. The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission is the first to capture on camera this wind flying out from the Sun in a twisting, whirling motion. The solar wind …

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Solar Orbiter ready for close encounter with Venus

The European Space Agency (ESA) is ready to guide the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft through its closest encounter with Venus so far.

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Celebrating Solar Orbiter and the women behind the mission

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New full Sun views show sunspots, fields and restless plasma

Zoom into Solar Orbiter's four new Sun images, assembled from high-resolution observations by the spacecraft's PHI and EUI instruments made on 22 March 2023. The PHI images are the highest-resolution full views of the Sun's visible surface…

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