Behind every successful ESA space mission, there is at least one woman. Behind the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission, there are hundreds of them. With this mosaic, in light of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are celebrating some of the women who have been working on this mission to explore and better understand our life-giving star.

Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been sent to the Sun. Yesterday, it celebrated its five-year launch anniversary. The incredible images and other data that the spacecraft is sending home help scientists to answer some of the big open questions about our Sun.

Some of the women shown here have been working on Solar Orbiter in various related fields, with roles in science, to engineering, administration, and technology. While some have been working on the various aspects of the mission and the big open questions for a good part of their long careers, some are contributing to the mission’s success while still in the early stages of their professional journeys. Thanks to these women shooting for the stars, we're learning more about the Sun than ever before.

The women in this image are, in alphabetical order:

Lucia Abbo, Kinga Albert, Olga Alexandrova, Virginia Angelini, Ester Antonucci, Beatriz Aparicio del Moral, Viviana Arciuli, Regina Aznar Cuadrado, María Balaguer Jiménez, Emily Baldwin, Mihaela Barbu, Diane Berard, Melani Bergmann, Agata Białek, Claire Blondel, Luciana Bonino, Narimane Brahimi, Chris Brockley-Blatt, Greta Cappello, Chiara Casini, Marta Casti, Filomena Catapano, Robin Colaninno, Hannah Collier, Raffaella D'Amicis, Vania Da Deppo, Anik De Groof, Pauline De Jong, Yara De Leo, Adriana De-Sassi, Rossana De Marco, Salma Fahmy, Serena Farina, Ana Belen Fernandez-Medina Maeso, Rosella Ferracuti, Cécile Fiachetti, Sophie Frahm, Federica Frassati, Isabelle Fratter, Clara Froment, Pilar García Parejo, Marina Giarrusso, Holly Gilbert, Alessandra Giunta, Cecilia Gordillo Pintor, Bianca Grauf, Catia Grimani, Sindhuja Gunaseelan, Louise Harra, Laura A. Hayes, Cristina Hernandez, Véronique Hervier, Ziwen Huang, Florence Hubert-Delisle, Rachel Hudson, Lidia Icardi, Miho Janvier, Sonia Jejčič, Giovanna Jerse, Nathalie Judas, Jana Kašparová, Violetta Knierim, Terry Kucera, Monica Laurenza, Sarah Leeks, Jayne Lefort, Isabelle Le Mer, Sue Lepri, Xiaohong Li, Daye Lim, Camille Yasmina Lorfing, Haydee Maldonado, Sophie Maurel Dumesnil, Claude Mercier, Aline Meuris, Helen Middleton, Nikolina Milanović, Anne Millard Philippon, Jean Morris, Ciara Mulholland, Sophie Musset, Nancy Narang, Quynh Nhu Nguyen, Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla, Eleni Nikou, Maria Armonia Núñez Peral, Helen O’Brien, Anne Pacros, Emanuela Palombo, Ángeles Palomeque Fernández, Arianna Pandi, Ioanna Papagiannaki, Susanna Parenti, Isabel Pérez Grande, Silvia Perri, Denise Perrone, Elena Petrova, Desi Raulin, Jennifer Rebellato, Mary Reden, Yeimy Rivera, Laura Rodríguez-García, Pilar Román Fernández, Mayte Royo, Ana Rugina, Giuliana Russano, Preity Sahani, Clementina Sasso, Shaheda Begum Shaik, Mar Sierra, Alessandra Slemer, Filomena Solitro, Sarah Spitzer, Muriel Zoë Stiefel, Hanna Strecker, Ramada Sukarmadji, Catherine Tamiatto, Aileen Urwin, Michela Uslenghi, Teresa Varela Jeraldo, Marie-Cécile Vassal, Isabel Vera Trallero, Astrid Veronig, Mar Vilches, Nicole Vilmer, Gill Watson, Kristin Regine Wirth, Lourdes Wisniewski, Stephanie Yardley, Xueyan Zhang, Paola Zuppella

[Image Description: This image is a collage of 130 portraits, arranged in a 10 by 13 grid. The portraits show selfies and photographs of women who have contributed to the ESA & NASA Solar Orbiter mission.]