Uncrewed spacecraftMission concluded
Ulysses spacecraft
Solar-polar heliophysics probe
Ulysses spacecraft launched at 818 pounds (371 kilograms) under European Space Agency and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It carries solar-wind plasma and ion-composition instruments, magnetometer, energetic-particle and cosmic-ray experiments, radio and plasma-wave detector, x-ray/gamma-ray instrument, and dust detector. Across nearly three , Ulysses measured fast high-latitude solar wind, tracked the eleven-year magnetic reversal, found weaker-than-expected polar fields and a 50-year solar-wind low, measured interstellar dust, crossed three comet tails, and operated more than four times its design life.
Uncrewed spacecraft dossier
Flight profile
- Launch
- October 6, 1990
Vehicle record
- Flights
- 1 documented mission
- First flight
- Ulysses
- Final flight
- Ulysses
- Mission milestone
- Jupiter February 8, 1992; three solar-polar circuits; contact ended June 30, 2009
- Status
- Completed after more than eighteen years of operations
- Vehicle
- Ulysses spacecraft
- Launch vehicle
- Space Shuttle Discovery
- Mass
- 818 pounds (371 kilograms)
- Operator
- European Space Agency and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Destination
- Jupiter gravity assist and high-latitude
- Payload
- Solar-wind plasma and ion-composition instruments, magnetometer, energetic-particle and cosmic-ray experiments, radio and plasma-wave detector, X-ray/gamma-ray instrument, and dust detector