Introduction

K.-P. Wenzel

The 1995-96 reporting period for the Solar System Division has been a period of highly satisfying achievements, sadly overshadowed by two disastrous launch failures. The positive side includes events and results such as:

• the SOHO launch, and the first-class scientific operations, led by Divisional staff, at the Experiment Operations Facility (EOF) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC);
• the first pass of the Ulysses spacecraft over the North polar region of the Sun and the start of the Second Solar Orbit;
• the excellent performance of the Luminosity Oscillation Imager instrument on SOHO with its initial results;
• the continued scientific output from the COSPIN investigation on Ulysses;
• the excellent operation of the Solid State Telescopes on the Wind spacecraft and its scientific output;
• the completion and integration of the Huygens payload, with divisional hardware contributions to two investigations;
• the pre-selection of the Rosetta orbiter and lander payloads, with divisional hardware contributions to instruments;
• the leadership provided to establish a firm future role of Fundamental Physics in ESA's Science Programme;
• and, last but not least, a multitude of scientific publications led by or with significant contributions from scientists of the Division.

The Division was hit badly in 1996 - as were many European space plasma/planetary science institutes - by the losses of the four Cluster spacecraft and of Mars 96, including the instrumentation provided by the Division.