Helios-A and Helios-B (also known as and ) are a pair of probes that were launched into heliocentric orbit to study solar processes. As a joint venture of West Germany's space agency DLR (70 percent share) and NASA (30 percent share) the probes were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on December10, 1974, and January15, 1976, respectively. As built by the main contractor, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, they were the first space probes built outside the United States and the Soviet Union to leave Earth's orbit.