The Extreme ultraviolet Spectrometer (ESP) is one of several EUV instruments that will be onboard the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) which is designed to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), launched Dec. 2, 1995, contains a sophisticated package designed to measure the flux of extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) and X-rays produced by the sun, as well as energetic particles.

Initiated in 1995 following the launch of SOHO, the sounding rocket underflights for SOHO cross-calibration and solar atmosphere investigations (CAL-SO) is an ongoing multi-year program that provides the absolute solar flux in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength region.

The University of Southern California Space Sciences Center has a long tradition of Sounding Rocket launches from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Initiated in the early 1970s the program has continually centered upon the Extreme Ultraviolet region of sunlight which is observable only from space.

The SEH-3 payload was launched onboard the shuttle Discovery on October 29th, 1998. This was the third shuttle mission for the SEH instrument.

The SEH-2 payload was launched on STS-085 aboard the space shuttle orbiter Discovery on August 7, 1997. It was also part of the IEH-2 (International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker-2) payload which flew successfully as IEH-1 on STS-069 in September 1995.

The International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker Payload (IEH-1) is the first of five planned flights to investigate the uncertainty of, and long term variation in, the magnitude of the absolute solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flux and to study the EUV emissions of the Jupiter Io plasma torus system.