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Ulysses mission coming to a natural end

22 February 2008

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This artist's impression shows the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft. Launched in 1990, the European-built spacecraft visits both polar regions once every 6.2 years as it circles the Sun in an orbit that is almost perpendicular to the ecliptic, the plane in which Earth and the planets move.

Credits: ESA

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To reach its final polar orbit around the Sun, chosen in order to chart the heliosphere at all solar latitudes, Ulysses needed a gravitational pull from Jupiter. This gravity-assist manoeuvre took place on 8 February 1992.

Credits: ESA (image by D. Hardy)

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