New Mission Will Take First Peek at Sun’s Poles

A new spacecraft is journeying to the Sun to snap the first pictures of the Sun’s north and south poles. Solar Orbiter, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA will have its first opportunity to launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 7, 2020, at 11:15 p.m. EST. Launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, the spacecraft will use Venus’ and Earth’s gravity to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane — the swath of space, roughly aligned with the Sun’s equator, where all planets orbit. From there, Solar Orbiter's bird’s eye view will give it the first-ever look at the Sun's poles.
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Music credits: “Oxide” and “Virtual Tidings” by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS]; “Progressive Practice” by Emmanuel David Lipszc [SACEM], Franck Lascombes [SACEM], Sebastien Lipszyc [SACEM]; “Political Spectrum” by Laurent Dury [SACEM] from Universal Production Music.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Holly Gilbert (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla (Catholic University of America): Scientist
Chris St. Cyr (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Joy Ng (USRA): Producer
Tom Bridgman (GST): Data Visualizer
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Animator
Chris Smith (USRA): Animator
Joy Ng (USRA): Animator
Lisa Poje (USRA): Animator
Krystofer Kim (USRA): Animator
Brian Monroe (USRA): Animator
Miles S. Hatfield (Telophase): Writer
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