Cruise phase complete

The flyby marks a major milestone for Solar Orbiter. From its launch in February 2020 to July of that year, the spacecraft was in its commissioning phase, during which the scientists and engineers tested out the spacecraft and its instruments. From July 2020 to now, Solar Orbiter has been in the cruise phase. During this time, the in-situ instruments have been taking measurements of the solar wind and other conditions around the spacecraft, while the remote sensing instruments designed to look at the Sun have been in their extended calibration and characterisation mode.

Despite Solar Orbiter not yet being in full science mode, a lot of science has been produced.

“Scientifically, this exceeded our expectations by a large margin,” says Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist. He explains that an upgrade to the ESA Ground Station Network allowed Solar Orbiter to send more data than expected back to Earth, and the mission’s scientists have been quick to take advantage. More than fifty papers detailing Solar Orbiter’s cruise phase science results are to be published in December by the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.