Parker Solar Probe Set To Launch From Cape Canaveral August 4, Humanity’s First Mission to the Sun

By  //  July 3, 2018

expected to break record for fastest spacecraft to leave Earth’s atmosphere

ABOVE VIDEO: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be the first-ever mission to “touch” the sun. The spacecraft, about the size of a small car, will travel directly into the sun’s atmosphere about 4 million miles from our star’s surface. The launch is slated Saturday, August 4. 

BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – United Launch Alliance Delta Heavy rocket, carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, is scheduled to liftoff on August 4 from Cape Canaveral and will carry humanity’s first mission to the sun.

The Parker Solar Probe will also look to break another record as it is expected to break the record for the fastest spacecraft to leave Earth’s atmosphere, a record set by the New Horizons mission during launch on an Atlas V in 2006.

Due to the extremely high energy required for the mission, the Delta IV Heavy’s capability will be augmented by a powerful third stage provided by Orbital ATK.

• Rocket: Delta IV Heavy
• Mission: Parker Solar Probe
• Launch Date: Saturday, August 4, 2018
• Launch Broadcast: Details to come
• Launch Location: Space Launch Complex-37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

United Launch Alliance Delta Heavy rocket, carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, is scheduled to liftoff on August 4 from Cape Canaveral and will carry humanity’s first mission to the sun.

Mission Information: Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first mission to the sun. After launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere – the corona – closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone.

While facing brutal heat and radiation, the mission will reveal the fundamental science behind what drives the solar wind, the constant outpouring of material from the sun that shapes planetary atmospheres and affects space weather near Earth.

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

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