Following an intensive review, JAXA have announced that ‘Plan B’ has been selected as the option for the Solar-C mission concept (launch date ~2018). Plan B is a high resolution spectroscopic mission to study the solar atmosphere. A European contribution to Plan B has been proposed under the name LEMUR (Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research) in the European Space Agency’s M3 call for mission proposals last year.

More information on Solar-C Plan B can be found in the interim report here:

http://hinode.nao.ac.jp/SOLAR-C/index_e.html

Studies of the ‘Plan A’ mission (an out-of-ecliptic helioseismology observatory) will continue to be prepared as Solar-D, a future Japanese solar mission with a proposed launch in mid-2020’s.