STEREO

STEREO

Illustration of a STEREO spacecraft during solar array deployment
Mission type	Solar observation
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	STEREO-A: 2006-047A STEREO-B: 2006-047Bn
SATCAT no.	STEREO-A: 29510 STEREO-B: 29511
Website	http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ http://stereo.jhuapl.edu/
Mission duration	Planned: 2 years STEREO-A elapsed: 18 years, 15 days STEREO-B final: 9 years, 10 months, 30 days
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Launch mass	STEREO-A: 620 kg STEREO-B: 620 kg[1]
Dry mass	547 kg (1,206 lb)
Dimensions	1.14 × 2.03 × 6.47 m 3.75 × 6.67 × 21.24 ft
Power	475 W
Start of mission
Launch date	October 26, 2006, 00:52 (2006-10-26UTC00:52) UTC
Rocket	Delta II 7925-10L
Launch site	Cape Canaveral SLC-17B
Contractor	United Launch Alliance
End of mission
Last contact	STEREO-B: September 23, 2016
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Heliocentric
Period	STEREO-A: 346 days STEREO-B: 388 days
Instruments SECCHI Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation IMPACT In-situ Measurements of Particles and CME Transients PLASTIC Plasma and Suprathermal Ion Composition S/WAVES STEREO/WAVES
Solar Terrestrial Probes program ← Hinode MMS →

STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) is a solar observation mission.^[2] Two nearly identical spacecraft (STEREO-A, STEREO-B) were launched in 2006 into orbits around the Sun that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth. This enabled stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections.

Contact with STEREO-B was lost in 2014 after it entered an uncontrolled spin preventing its solar panels from generating enough power, but STEREO-A is still operational.