Soho's Atlas-Centaur assembly

The Centaur stage for the Atlas-Centaur vehicle to launch ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (Soho) at Cape Canaveral is hoisted for mating with the first stage. Soho was launched on 2 December 1995 as a cooperative project between ESA and NASA to study the Sun, from its deep core, through its outer atmosphere and the solar wind out to a distance ten times beyond the Earth's orbit. Soho is providing solar physicists with their first long-term, uninterrupted view of the Sun, helping us to understand the interactions between the Sun and the Earth's environment with unprecedented clarity. [Image Date: 1995/11] [97.11.007-007]