NASA, ESA to send spacecraft to study sun, help defend Earth from dangerous solar storms

Data from the orbiter will help scientists in forecasting space weather that impacts Earth.

Scientists plan to use the spacecraft to snap the first pictures of the sun's north and south poles and study the sun's outer atmosphere and solar wind.

The Solar Orbiter has 10 state-of-the-art instruments from NASA and ESA which will provide scientists with data for real-life applications.

It will complement the work being done by the Parker Solar Probe, launched by NASA in 2018.

The two-hour window for Sunday's launch opens at 11:03 p.m.