Launch Week Begins for Parker Solar Probe

Encapsulated in its payload fairing, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has been mated to a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 on July 31, 2018.
Encapsulated in its payload fairing, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has been mated to a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37 on July 31, 2018. The Parker Solar Probe is being prepared for a mission to perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun’s atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection. Photo credit: NASA/Leif Heimbold
In the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near NASA's Kennedy Space Center, NASA's Parker Solar Probe is encapsulated in its payload fairing on July 19, 2018.
In the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is encapsulated in its payload fairing on July 19, 2018. The spacecraft is mated to its third stage, built and tested by Northrup Grumman in Chandler, Arizona. Photo credit: NASA/Leif Heimbold

Teams preparing for launch of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe are beginning a busy week leading up to liftoff, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 11, at 3:33 a.m. EDT, the opening of a 65-minute window. The spacecraft will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 on Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Parker Solar Probe will provide unprecedented information about our Sun, where changing conditions can spread out into the solar system to affect Earth and other worlds. The spacecraft will fly directly into the Sun’s atmosphere where, from a distance of – at the closest approach — approximately 4 million miles from its surface, the spacecraft will trace how energy and heat move through the Sun’s atmosphere and explore what accelerates the solar wind and solar energetic particles.

The agency is holding a prelaunch mission briefing Thursday, Aug. 9, at 1 p.m. The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and at http://www.nasa.gov/live. Live launch coverage will begin Saturday, Aug. 11, at 3 a.m. For a complete schedule of mission coverage, including opportunities for media participation, visit https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/parker-solar-probe-briefings-and-events.