Solar Orbiter Media Day at Astrotech

Members of the European Space Agency (ESA)/Airbus Defence and Space Solar Orbiter team inspect the Solar Orbiter spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, on Dec. 16, 2019. On this day, media personnel were given the opportunity to view and photograph the spacecraft up close. Representatives from NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP), ESA, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Airbus, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center provided an overview of the mission, spacecraft and launch vehicle. Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, and the spacecraft has been developed by Airbus. The mission will study the Sun and how it can affect the space environment throughout the solar system, and it also will provide the first images of the Sun’s poles.