AbstractThese are the memoirs of fifty years of research in solar physics, closely related to the history of three of the major solar space missions, from the Solar Maximum Mission, SMM, to Solar Orbiter, at present in navigation toward vantage points closer and closer to the Sun. My interest in solar physics was stimulated by the studies on cosmic rays at the University of Turin, and the research in this field initiated at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow in the team of John Wilcox with studies on the large-scale corona and its rotation. Thanks to Alan Gabriel, during my first space mission, SMM, I was involved in the operations and scientific data analysis of the Soft X-ray Polychromator. Together with Giancarlo Noci and Giuseppe Tondello, I participated in the realization of the UltraViolet Coronagraph Spectrometer, NASA/ASI, flown on-board SOHO. After this experience there was the opportunity to participate in the formulation of the proposal of the Solar Orbiter mission, and to guide the team, which for this mission developed the Metis coronagraph, up to the delivery of the instrument to the European Space Agency in 2017.