# Solar Orbiter

*Spacecraft*

Takes the closest images of the Sun ever made, from inside Mercury's orbit, and pairs them with instruments sampling the solar wind where it passes - so the same event can be watched leaving the surface and then felt. Venus flybys are tilting its orbit steadily out of the ecliptic to look down on the poles, which no telescope on Earth can see.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Agency | ESA/NASA |
| Launched | 2020-02-10 - still working |
| From the Sun | 69,462,647 km (+1,947,374 km/d) |
| From the Earth | 90,058,860 km (+77,294 km/d) |
| A signal takes | 5 min |
| Travelling at | 48.3 km/s |

Distances and speed are computed from JPL Horizons trajectories and are true of 2026-09-05, changing at the rate given beside each. The interpolation itself is good to a few kilometres; what ages these figures is the date, not the arithmetic.

## Path

A loop round the Sun that reaches inside Mercury's orbit, 0.28 AU at its closest, about 168 days round. Venus flybys are tilting it out of the plane of the planets a little at a time, to bring the Sun's poles into view.

## Along the way

- 2020-06-15 — First perihelion, and the closest pictures of the Sun so far
- 2021-11-27 — The last Earth flyby - from here the orbit only tilts
- 2022-03-26 — Closest perihelion yet, inside Mercury's average distance

## Elsewhere

- On the live map: https://www.orbitalmap.space/?world=solar-system&focus=solar-orbiter
- The mission's own page: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
- This object as a page: https://www.orbitalmap.space/o/solar-orbiter/
- Every object: https://www.orbitalmap.space/o/
- What this site is and what it reads: https://www.orbitalmap.space/llms.txt