Solar Orbiter PLA Mate Integration

European Space Agency workers assist as a crane lowers the Solar Orbiter spacecraft onto the payload adapter inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida on Jan. 17, 2020. Solar Orbiter is an international cooperative mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA. The mission aims to study the Sun, its outer atmosphere and solar wind. The spacecraft will provide the first images of the Sun’s poles. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus Defence and Space. Solar Orbiter will launch in February 2020 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.