Graphic of NASA's Heliphysics System Observatory, or HSO, spacecraft.
The Heliophysics flight missions form a fleet of solar, heliospheric, geospace, and planetary spacecraft that operate simultaneously to understand the dynamics of the solar system. This fleet can be thought of as a single observatory, the Heliophysics System Observatory (HSO). Experience has demonstrated that combinations of these missions enable larger scale investigations. This distributed observatory has flexibility and capabilities that evolve with each new mission launched. Knowledge, data, and new interpretive models facilitate the path toward new scientific understanding.