Investigated orbit of Solar Orbiter shown in orange. The x and the y axes define the ecliptic plane, the z axis is perpendicular to the ecliptic. The units for the axes are AU. The full Solar Orbiter orbit is shown in red, the orbit of Earth is shown in blue, the Sun is shown as yellow circle. The upper panel also contains the orbits of Mercury and Venus as additional reference points. We note that the z axis in the lower panel has a different scale from the y axis. Hence the out-of-ecliptic extent of the orbit seems exaggerated.