Assessment Phase Executive Report
Publication date: 23 June 2005
Authors: SCI-AM
Volume: SCI-A/2005/023/NR
Year: 2005
Copyright: ESA
The Solar Orbiter mission was first discussed at the Tenerife "Crossroads" workshop in 1998, in the framework of the ESA Solar Physics Planning Group. Following a pre-assessment study in ESA's Concurrent Design Facility in 1999, the mission was submitted to ESA in 2000. Solar Orbiter was selected by ESA's Science Programme Committee in October 2000. The mission was subsequently re-confirmed by the SPC in May 2002. on the basis of implementation as a mission group together with BepiColombo. A reassessment of BepiColombo was conducted in 2003, leading to an SPC decision in November 2003 to maintain Solar Orbiter in the Cosmic Vision programme, and to begin an assessment study of Solar Orbiter. At its 107th meeting on 7-8 June 2004, the SPC endorsed the recommendations of the advisory bodies (SSWG and SSAC), and confirmed the place of Solar Orbiter in the Cosmic Vision programme, with the objective of a launch in October 2013 and no later than May 2015.
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