The Centaur’s main engine has completed its second and final burn, positioning the Solar Orbiter spacecraft for the transfer orbit it needs in order to head toward the Sun and begin its mission. “When a team is focused on mission success, that’s a language that we all speak.”
“This is an international collaboration 10-plus years in the making,” Dunn said. NASA Launch Director Tim Dunn of the agency’s Launch Services Program, which had responsibility for launch management, credited the combined efforts of the ULA, ESA and NASA teams to overcome challenges to make the launch successful. United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, provided the Atlas V launch service. The Solar Orbiter mission is managed by ESA the scientific payload elements of Solar Orbiter are being provided by ESA Member States, NASA and ESA. The European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Germany will operate Solar Orbiter. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus. ESA’s Engineering & Test Center (ESTEC) in The Netherlands managed the development effort. Solar Orbiter is a cooperative mission between the ESA and NASA. According to Garcia, the testing phase should be finalized around the end of June 2020.
Solar orbiter launch date series#
The spacecraft also will be the first to provide images of the Sun’s poles.īefore the science phase of the mission can begin, Solar Orbiter will undergo a series of checkouts, from initial deployments and checks of the spacecraft’s systems to turning on and checking its suite of 10 science instruments. Solar Orbiter is beginning a seven-year mission to study the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft while also observing the Sun, giving scientists a better understanding of how our star can affect the space environment throughout the solar system. Illustration of Solar Orbiter, which will face the Sun from within the orbit of Mercury at its closest approach. “The spacecraft is safe and pointing to the Sun,” said European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cesar Garcia, program manager for Solar Orbiter. Monday, mission controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, received a signal from the spacecraft indicating that its solar panels had successfully deployed and were drawing power. 9.Īfter a nominal ascent, the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage. The vehicle lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 11:03 p.m. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft is heading toward the Sun after a late-night launch from Florida’s Space Coast aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. Liftoff of the Atlas V rocket with the Solar Orbiter spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
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