Solar Orbiter (
SolO) is a planned
Sun-observing
satellite, under development by the
European Space Agency (ESA). The mission will be launched with an
Atlas V from the Cape Canaveral AFS in
Florida in October 2018. SolO is intended to perform detailed measurements of the inner
heliosphere and nascent
solar wind, and perform close observations of the polar regions of the Sun, which is difficult to do from
Earth, both serving to answer the question 'How does the Sun create and control the heliosphere?'