Parker Solar Probe

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, our closest star. The spacecraft will use seven Venus flybys and 24 orbits over nearly seven years to gradually reduce its orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will come close to 4 percent of the distance from the Sun to the Earth, and closer to the Sun’s surface than any spacecraft before it.

The spacecraft will fly into part of the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, for the first time. The spacecraft will use four instrument suites designed to study electric and magnetic fields, plasma, and energetic particles, as well as image the solar wind. The mission will trace how energy moves through the solar corona and explore what accelerates the solar wind and solar energetic particles, enabling critical contributions to our ability to forecast changes in Earth’s space environment that impact life and technology on our planet.

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living With a Star flight program is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory implements the mission for NSA. Scientific instrumentation is provided by teams led by the Naval Research Laboratory, Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.

Good morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket stands ready for liftoff at Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Delta IV will launch NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on its journey to the Sun, venturing closer than any spacecraft before it. Launch is targeted for 3:53 a.m. EDT.

Launch countdown activities continue for this morning’s launch attempt. The weather forecast for today’s launch is now at a 90 percent chance for favorable weather at liftoff.

The launch blog originates from the NASA News Center here at Kennedy, a few miles west of the launch complex. There’s more to come, so stay with us.

Follow televised coverage of the launch countdown and launch at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive.

Today is launch day for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, as it begins its journey to the Sun.  Everything is set for launch of the pioneering spacecraft at 3:53 a.m. EDT on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Stay tuned, launch coverage will begin at 3 a.m.

The launch team is targeting 3:53 a.m. EDT for liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. The countdown is in progress at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37.

Join us here on the launch blog for updates from the countdown beginning at 3 a.m.

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy stands on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida following rollback of the mobile service tower. The launch vehicle will send NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on its journey to the Sun.

Watch the live webcast with NASA EDGE during the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Mobile Service Tower rollback at Space Launch Complex-37. The live show begins at 6:30 p.m. and can be viewed on NASA TV and social media at: NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/live 
NASA EDGE Facebook: www.facebook.com/nasaedgefan
NASA EDGE YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/NASAedge
NASA EDGE Ustream: www.ustream.tv/nasaedge

Guests on the show:
Jim Green, NASA’s Chief Scientist
Nicky Fox, Parker Solar Probe project scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Eric Christian, deputy principal investigator of Integrated Science Investigations of the Sun (ISOIS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Betsy Congdon, Parker Solar Probe Thermal Protection System lead engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Mic Woltman, chief, Fleet Systems Integration Branch, NASA’s Launch Services Program

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to lift off atop a ULA Delta IV Heavy at 3:33 a.m. EDT, at the opening of a 65-minute window, on Saturday, Aug. 11.

The Parker Solar Probe mission and launch teams today concluded a successful Launch Readiness Review. There are no technical issues being worked at this time. Teams are proceeding for liftoff on Saturday, Aug. 11, at 3:33 a.m. EDT. On a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.

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.

Meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing are predicting a 70 percent chance of favorable weather on launch day. Primary weather concerns are anvil clouds and cumulus clouds.

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.

NASA and its mission partners have analyzed and approved an extended launch window for Parker Solar Probe until Aug. 23, 2018 (previously Aug. 19). The spacecraft is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 11, 2018, at 3:48 a.m. with a window of 45 minutes.

Parker Solar Probe will launch from Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, secured inside its payload fairing, was moved July 30, 2018, from nearby Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The following day, the spacecraft was lifted and attached to the top of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in the Vertical Integration Facility.

Parker Solar Probe is being prepared for its launch, on its mission to “touch” the Sun. The spacecraft will travel directly into the Sun’s atmosphere, about 4 million miles from its surface — and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before, thanks to its innovative Thermal Protection System. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona. The mission will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and how processes there ultimately affect near-Earth space.