SOHO is a project to study the sun from its deep core to its outer corona, including the solar wind. The SOHO spacecraft, which was launched 2 December 1995, was expected to last for two years, but thanks to the SOHO team it is still going strong eight years later.
The SOHO team has been presented with the prestigious Laurels for Team Achievement Award by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). The award recognises both the outstanding achievements in designing, building and operating the mission, as well as the science it has performed. The SOHO project is built on international cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.
DNV's involvement
"We can be proud of having been involved from 1990 to 1996 in the design, construction, testing, launch and finally in-flight testing of SOHO – before it was officially taken over by ESA/NASA in the early summer of 1996," says Nils Harald Hansen at the DNV-office in Toulouse.
DNV's team was responsible throughout this period for the system RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety). DNV staff also wrote the specifications for reliability and took part for one year in the integration of SOHO in Toulouse. They were also responsible for defining the contingency operations and procedures for coping with possible onboard failures after SOHO had been launched and carrying out the necessary reconfigurations on board so that full nominal operations could continue.
Per Magnus Nysveen and Nils Harald Hansen were the DNV staff involved in Toulouse: Nysveen from 1990 to 1994 and Hansen from 1991 to 1996 (until after the launch of SOHO).
Tribute to a successful team
Though the SOHO spacecraft was designed for a two-year-mission, its spectacular success has led to two extensions of the mission, firstly until 2003 and then until March 2007. The award is a tribute to a team that has contributed to one of the most successful space missions in history.
The International Academy of Astronautics has presented this award in recognition of extraordinary performance and achievement by teams of scientists, engineers and managers in the field of astronautics. This honour has been awarded only twice before - to the Russian Mir space station team and the US space shuttle team. Now the SOHO team joins this select group.
The citation of the award for the SOHO team reads: "To the team of scientists, engineers and managers for the development and operation of a world-class mission leading to substantial advancements in understanding the sun and the solar-terrestrial relationship."
Revolutionised thinking
The team continued to produce excellent science throughout the mission, and SOHO has revolutionised the way scientists think about the sun and how it might affect the earth's environment. More than 1,500 papers, representing the work of more than 1,500 scientists, have been published based on SOHO data.
Fourteen European countries, led by ESA and prime contractor Astrium EADS (formerly Matra-Marconi), built the SOHO spacecraft. It carries twelve instruments (nine European-developed and three American-developed) and was launched by NASA's Atlas II-AS rocket on 2 December 1995.
With SOHO still going strong, the success story is set to continue.
For more information, please contact:
Nils Harald Hansen, nils.hansen@astrium.eads.net