The spacecraft's payload module includes 650 kilograms of very advanced istrumentation for observing the Sun from its deep core to the outer corona, and outwards to the solar wind.
The service module distributes power from the solar panels and provides thermal control, pointing and telecommunications.
The building of these modules was done under the leadership of the prime contractor, Matra Marconi, at factories in Portsmouth, UK, and Toulouse, France where the modules were joined in August 1994.
