The SOLAR payload, installed on the International Space Station outside the European module Columbus, has been deactivated today, after nine years of successful mission, well beyond the planned operational life of three years.
Launched on February 7th, 2008 aboard the Shuttle Atlantis (mission STS122E), together with the EuTEF payload (entirely developed, assembled and tested by OHB Italia), SOLAR was installed on Columbus by EVA and immediately activated on February 15th. It is composed of three instruments for solar observation, installed on a two-axis rotating platform for Sun pointing with compensation of changes of ISS attitude and relative angle between Sun and ISS orbital plane.
In the frame of this mission, OHB Italia was responsible for the whole development cycle of the payload Control Unit (CU), from the preliminary design to the delivery of one Ground Model, one Proto-Flight Model and a spare Flight Model.