Mission Review

Solar Orbiter is a Sun-observing probe developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with contributions from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The UK Space Agency commissioned RAND Europe and Ipsos to produce a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for future evaluations of the National Space Science Programme (NSSP) and the Science and Exploration Bilateral Programme (SEBP). As part of this, RAND Europe has conducted two mission reviews, into Solar Orbiter and the James Webb Space Telescope, to test this framework, but they do not constitute full evaluations.

Through the NSSP, the UK contributed £33m to the development of Solar Orbiter spacecraft and its instrumentation. The UK contributed to the development of four of the ten instruments hosted on Solar Orbiter, leveraging significant heritage in solar physics instrument development.

The UK played an important role in mission formulation, with the UK solar physics community involved since the early stages of the mission. Early engagement and enthusiasm from UK solar physics researchers, coupled with early UK financial support, led to successful UK proposals for leading roles in two instruments and contributions to two more. While internal funding decisions initially limited the UK to just two leadership roles, following funding shortfalls by international partners the UK stepped in to assume leadership roles on another instrument.