Solar Orbiter sets off on mission to get up close and unlock the secrets of the sun

Britishbuilt satellite can withstand heat of more than 500°C

The Solar Orbiter is on its way to try to unlock the secrets of the sun.

Built by Airbus in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, it lifted off in the Atlas V 411 rocket from Nasa’s Cape Canaveral site in Florida just after 4am UK time yesterday.

There were hugs of congratulations and relief at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Space Operations Centre, while in Florida, Gunther Hasinger, ESA’s director of science, and Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa’s associate administrator for the science mission directorate, declared: “We have a mission.”

Signals from the spacecraft were received at New Norcia ground station in Australia at 5am, following separation from the launcher upper stage in low Earth orbit.

Prof Hasinger said: “As humans, we have always been familiar with the importance of the sun to life on Earth, observing it and investigating how it works in detail – but we have also long known it has the potential to disrupt everyday life.”

Cesar Garcia Marirrodriga, ESA’s Solar Orbiter project manager, said: “After some 20 years since inception, six years of construction, and more than a year of testing, we have established new high-temperature technologies and completed the challenge of building a spacecraft that is ready to face the sun and study it up close.”

The satellite will orbit the star, beaming back high-resolution photos and measuring the solar wind as part of the mission led by the ESA and partly funded by the UK Space Agency.

It will take about two years to reach the sun. Coated with a heat shield, called SolarBlack, the spacecraft can endure temperatures of more than 500°C, hot enough to melt lead.

The satellite will make a close approach to the sun every five months, and at its closest will only be 26 million miles away. It will be positioned over roughly the same region of the sun’s surface for several days, allowing it to observe magnetic activity building up that can lead to powerful flares and eruptions, providing new insights into the giant storms raging on its surface.

Predicting when these storms occur could help governments and companies protect satellites and other communications infrastructure.

Mark McCaughrean, senior adviser for science and exploration at the ESA, said the satellite will be in full science operations mode by November 2021, which is when it will be in the right orbit.

Explaining why the mission is important, he told the PA news agency: “From a scientific perspective, it is about the mystery of this big object sitting at the centre of our solar system. It is about understanding that big monster that sits at the centre of our solar system better.”

Prof McCaughrean said that when the shuttle launched, the room was silent, as everyone knew the danger would not pass until 57 minutes later, but at about 6.30am they opened a “cheap bottle of plonk” to celebrate.

The Solar Orbitor took off successfully from Cape Canaveral.