This answer links to the NASA GSFC page this NASA pageOrbits of the two STEREO spacecraft. The first video shows the two STEREO spacecraft use two and three passes by the Moon to leave Earth orbit and enter into an orbit around the sun.
Below is a GIF hand-made from the frames of that .mov
file, but you can download the tiny .mov
files from the website.
The text mentionsof the NASA page linked above includes the following:
When the two STEREO spacecraft are launched, they are first placed in a highly eccentric orbit around Earth. In this Quicktime movie, the green dot represents Earth, the white dot stands for the Moon, and the letters "A" (red) and "B" (blue) stand for the STEREO "Ahead" and "Behind" spacecraft respectively. The yellow arrow represents the direction of the Sun, which changes as Earth moves along its orbit.
To me it looks like the arrow points in the prograde direction, the direction that the Earth is moving around the Sun, not towards the Sun.
Am I wrong?