Joint US-European Solar Orbiter Launch Begins 'Unprecedented' Mission

A rocket carrying Solar Orbiter, a probe that aims to take pictures of the north and south poles of the sun, launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 9, in a joint mission with NASA and the European Space Agency, NASA said.

Launched atop the Atlas V rocket, the Solar Orbiter was set to reach the sun in 2022, NASA said in a statement.

“Solar Orbiter is going to do amazing things. Combined with the other recently launched NASA missions to study the Sun, we are gaining unprecedented new knowledge about our star,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for Science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, in a statement.

This video shows takeoff and the view from the rocket as it ascended. Credit: NASA via Storyful