6 October

1990: On 6 October 1990, the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft was launched on board US Space Shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral, USA.

Ulysses is a ESA/NASA mission to study the poles of the Sun and interstellar space above and below the poles. The spacecraft's booster rockets fired to send Ulysses on its way to Jupiter, where it used the giant planet's gravity to gain more momentum to swing out of the ecliptic plane and onward to the polar regions of the Sun.