NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Launches to “Touch the Sun”
David Dickinson | August 12, 2018


The unique Parker Solar Probe launched on Sunday, August 12th, set to fly faster and come closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it.

The Parker Solar Probe —one of the top space science missions for 2018 — launched from Cape Canaveral early today, on a daring mission to probe the mysteries of our host star.

The launch lit up the early morning skies along the Florida Space Coast, as the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket rumbled to life at launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 3:31 a.m. EDT. At 5:33 a.m., the mission operations manager reported that the spacecraft was healthy and operating normally.


Touted as the “mission to touch the Sun,” the Parker Solar Probe will carry a suite of instruments closer to the nearest star than ever before in an effort to unlock its secrets. The Parker Solar Probe is also the first mission named after a living person, solar physicist Eugene Parker.

“Today’s launch was the culmination of six decades of scientific study and millions of hours of effort,” says project manager Andy Driesman (Johns Hopkins University). “Now, Parker Solar Probe is operating normally and on its way to begin a seven-year mission of extreme science.”